Poster Presentation 2nd Australian Cancer and Metabolism Meeting 2017

High-throughput analysis of lipid droplet phenotypes in human cancer cell lines (#54)

Miriam Heitz 1 2 , Maninda S Amarasekera 1 3 , Sarah Frost 1 3 , Yuyan Chen 1 3 , Jennifer A Byrne 1 3
  1. Children's Cancer Research Unit, Kids Research Institute, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Westmead, NSW, Australia
  2. Faculty of Biotechnology, Mannheim University of Applied Sciences, Mannheim, Germany
  3. Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health, University of Sydney, Westmead, NSW, Australia

Lipid droplets (LDs) are essential cytoplasmic organelles that allow both the storage and mobilisation of lipid, yet LD phenotypes (LD sizes/ numbers per cell) can vary greatly between cell types. As the deregulation of lipid metabolism is a hallmark of human cancers, we hypothesise that LD phenotypes in cancer cells could serve as biomarkers for sensitivity or resistance towards lipid metabolism-targeted therapies. In order to quantify LDs in a high-throughput setting, we measured BODIPY-stained LDs in human breast cancer (AU-565, HMC-1-8, EVSA-T, ZR-75-30, MDA-MB-231) and osteosarcoma cell lines (U2OS, 143B) using a MetaXpress High-Content Imaging system and analysis software. Under routine cell culture conditions, HMC-1-8 and AU-565 breast cancer cells showed the highest LD numbers/ cell (mean values of 43 LD/ cell and 15 LD/ cell, respectively) and the largest LD areas/ cell (mean values of 10.6 μm2 and 5.6 μm2, respectively). We then compared LDs in cells cultured with/ without 200 μM or 400 μM oleic acid supplementation for 24 hours, or with 0.5-2.0 μg/ml Brefeldin A (BFA) or DMSO vehicle for 5 or 24 hours. Oleic acid supplementation or BFA treatment for 24 hours significantly increased or reduced LD numbers/ cell, respectively, in all cell lines tested. However, after BFA treatment for 24 hours, we noted significant differences in cell survival between cell lines. These results indicate that high-throughput techniques can reproducibly quantify LDs in different cancer cell lines, and that measurements of LD phenotypes and cell survival could be combined for future large-scale drug screening.