Inducible mouse model for tracking mature adipocytes and their fate in bone marrow
This technology is a knock-in mouse line that enables inducible labeling and lineage tracing of mature adipocytes in vivo , allowing researchers to track their fate in bone marrow, skeletal, and metabolic studies.
Unmet Need: Genetic access to mature adipocytes without labeling their precursors
Mature adipocytes are increasingly recognized as active participants in bone marrow regeneration, bone repair, and metabolic disease rather than passive tissue. Studying their function requires tools that selectively label mature adipocytes and track their fate over time. Existing approaches commonly rely on the gene Adipoq and Fabp4; however, in bone marrow, these genes are also expressed stromal cells, including leptin receptor-positive (LepR+) cells that can give rise to both adipocytes and bone-forming cells. As a result, these approaches cannot reliably distinguish cells derived from mature adipocytes from those derived from their progenitors.
The Technology: Knock-in Cre line that labels only mature adipocytes
This technology is a knock-in mouse line carrying a tamoxifen inducible Cre recombinase inserted directly into the Plin1 gene, which codes for perilipin 1. Perilipin 1 coats lipid droplets in mature fat cells only. It’s not made by bone marrow stromal cells or blood cells, so it cleanly separates mature adipocytes from every other cell type in the marrow. Homozygous animals are healthy and make normal perilipin. A dose of tamoxifen turns the recombinase on for a defined window, so researchers control exactly when labeling happens. Crossing the mouse line with a fluorescent reporter marks the adipocytes present at that moment. Crossing it to floxed alleles instead deletes a chosen gene specifically in mature adipocytes.
The knock-in mouse line has been validated in living animals. A single dose of tamoxifen labeled about 90 percent of perilipin positive mature adipocytes in bone marrow within 36 hours, and no other cell type was marked.
Applications:
- Lineage tracing of mature adipocytes in bone marrow and other fat depots
- Adipocyte specific gene deletion
- Research tool on hematopoietic stem cell niche, marrow recovery after chemotherapy or radiation, bone healing skeletal regeneration, and marrow fat in aging and osteoporosis
- Single cell transcriptomic profiling of mature adipocytes
- Preclinical models for screening agents that act on adipocyte cells
Advantages:
- Enables user-controlled cell labeling through tamoxifen timing and dose
- Preserves normal perilipin expression, so homozygous animals stay healthy and can be bred
- Works with standard Cre reporter lines and floxed alleles already in use
- Performs across steady state and multiple injury models
- Available as a ready to use strain