Hi Everyone,
We would like to do lipid staining and there are two main techniques reported in the literature. I know that the Nile Red method has drawn some criticism, however I see that some groups still seem to prefer it. It is much simpler and allows you to use live animals. My understanding is that the main drawback of Nile Red is that it stains only a subset of lipid stores known as the acidic lysosome-related gut granules. I looked these up and find information on their relationship to lysosomes, zinc storage or autofluorescence-related to death, but nothing that characterizes them as what I think of as a «traditional» fat function - energy storage or even signaling.
Am I correct in my understanding that Nile Red stains only the acidic lysosome-related gut granules? I found some information that it also stains lipid droplets, which are more central to energy storage, but this seems to have been discredited, and I could not find any recent publications that argue the opposite point (that it still stains lipid droplets)?
What, if anything, is known about the function of the acidic lysosome-related gut granules in the context of energy storage?
Also, what overall percentage of lipid stores do these granules represent (if they are in fact considered lipid stores)?
Are there any other dyes that can be used to stain lipids in live animals?
We would like to do just one type of experiment to characterize the overall lipid profile of a specific mutant. So we need one endpoint that would be representative of overall energy storage capacity of the worm and do not need to get everything or be perfect in our characterization.
Thank you,
Beata