Peroxisomes are membrane-bound organelles that are critical for lipid metabolism and redox homeostasis. The importance of these organelles for human health and development is underlined by the existence of several inherited diseases, so called peroxisomal disorders. Existing approaches for imaging peroxisomes in animal models and patient samples are not suitable to study peroxisome dysfunction and peroxisome biogenesis abnormalities, hindering research progress. A study in Nature Communications reports a new technique to stain functional and dysfunctional peroxisomes in live mammalian cells and zebrafish embryos based on the use of a fluorescent fatty acid probe. The researchers modified the BODIPY-C12 probe, widely used to track lipids that accumulate in lipid droplets and mitochondria, to create the peroxisome-specific probes PeroxiSPY650 and PeroxiSPY555. They showed that these probes, which combine high peroxisome specificity, bright fluorescence in the red and far-red spectrum and fast non-cytotoxic staining, were suitable for peroxisome imaging of live human cells and zebrafish embryos.

Original reference: Korotkova, D. et al. Nat. Commun. 15, 4314 (2024)

过氧化物酶体是膜结合细胞器，对于脂质代谢和氧化还原稳态至关重要。几种遗传性疾病（即所谓的过氧化物酶体疾病）的存在强调了这些细胞器对人类健康和发育的重要性。现有的动物模型和患者样本中过氧化物酶体成像方法不适合研究过氧化物酶体功能障碍和过氧化物酶体生物发生异常，阻碍了研究进展。 《自然通讯》的一项研究报道了一种基于荧光脂肪酸探针对活哺乳动物细胞和斑马鱼胚胎中功能性和功能失调的过氧化物酶体进行染色的新技术。研究人员对广泛用于追踪脂滴和线粒体中积累的脂质的 BODIPY-C12 探针进行了修改，以创建过氧化物酶体特异性探针 PeroxiSPY650 和 PeroxiSPY555。他们表明，这些探针结合了高过氧化物酶体特异性、红色和远红光谱中的明亮荧光以及快速非细胞毒性染色，适用于活体人类细胞和斑马鱼胚胎的过氧化物酶体成像。

原始参考文献：Korotkova, D. et al.夜晚。交流。 15, 4314 (2024)