P26 WWU

Email: Horst Robenek

Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, closely associated with the Medical Faculty of the Westphalian University of Münster. Our group will study the high resolution structure of lipid droplets. We will further develop advanced morphological techniques, particularly the freeze-fracture immunocytochemistry. Our morphological studies on lipid droplets will be performed in well-established mammalian liver cell lines, primary liver cells und leukocytes and focus on the intracellular site and mechanism of lipid droplet formation, and the relation between lipid droplets and key intracellular organelles. In particular, freezefracture immunocytochemistry of the distribution of lipid droplet-associated proteins, interactions between lipid droplets, endoplasmic reticulum, plasma membrane and lamellar bodies will be analyzed. Furthermore, freeze-fracture immuncytochemistry will be used to study interactions between lipid droplets and the Golgi as well as their role in VLDL assembly. In addition, we will study the accumulation of lipids and lipid droplets in macrophages and the role of lipid droplet-associated proteins in the development of atherosclerosis in humans and mouse models using freeze-fracture immunocytochemistry. The usefulness of lipid droplet-associated proteins as