In a preceding study, we carried out intervention trials with wild-type (WT) mice fed normal chow, exposed to short-time starvation, or treated with high-fat diet (HFD). The aim was to assess the effect of these forms of nutritional stress on the lipidome of lipid droplets (LDs) isolated from hepatocytes. Lipidomic analysis by LC-MS enabled profi ling of all species from glycerolipid and glycerophospholipid classes and revealed particularly the triacylglycerol (TG) lipidome to be best suited for phenotyping nutritional stresses applied to the animals. In addition, structural analysis by MS/MS at lipid molecular species level provided metabolic relationships characteristic for hepatocyte lipid metabolism ( 1 ). To further probe the phenotypic information potential inherent in the lipidome of hepatocyte LDs, we have now extended the question to genetic stress; we have characterized a mouse model lacking adipocyte triglyceride lipase (ATGL), which shows a marked defect in lipid metabolism in many tissues including the liver . Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007 Abbreviations: ATGL, adipocyte triglyceride lipase; CGI-58, comparative gene identifi cation 58; DG, diacylglycerol; FAS, fasted before sacrifi ce; FED, received control chow; HFD, high-fat diet; KO, knockout; LD, lipid droplet; LDA, Lipid Data Analyzer; PC, phosphatidylcholine; PCA, principal component analysis; PC1, principal component 1; PC2, principal component 2; PE, phosphatidylethanolamine; PI, phosphatidylinositol; PS, phosphatidylserine; TG, triacylglycerol; VLC, very long-chain; WT, wild-type; WT-FED, WT-FAS, KO-FED, KO-FAS, hepatocyte LD sample groups from wild-type or knockout mice fed chow or kept in fasted condition, respectively .
The research leading to these results received funding from the European