Abstract
Perilipin 5: putting the brakes on lipolysis
Highlights
Lipid droplets serve a vital function in many types of cells
Lipolysis has been best characterized in adipocytes, where the release of fatty acids from triacylglycerols is orchestrated by the coordinated activity of three lipases and several accessory factors (2)
The same trio of lipases can be detected in myocytes of heart and skeletal muscle; the identity of relevant lipases remains unclear for many tissues where neutral lipids are stored on a relatively small scale
Summary
Lipid droplets serve a vital function in many types of cells. In most cells of the body, cholesterol esters stored in lipid droplets are thought to serve as a source of cholesterol for membrane synthesis and repair when dietary cholesterol is scarce (1). Perilipin 5 (formerly OXPAT, MLDP, or LSDP5) is expressed in myocytes of heart and skeletal muscle, and adipocytes of brown adipose tissue; each of these cells relies upon lipolysis to provide fatty acids to mitochondria for -oxidation to drive the production of either ATP or heat. In the current issue of the Journal of Lipid Research, two articles written by Wang et al (4) and Pollak et al (5) provide important insight into the control of lipolysis by perilipin 5 in cardiac myocytes.
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