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.
\r\rMature 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.
\r\rThis 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.
\r\rThe 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.
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