HCS Products for Phospholipidosis and Steatosis

Phospholipidosis is the intracellular accumulation of phospholipids, often triggered by cationic amphiphilic drugs. Steatosis is the accumulation of neutral lipids, trigged by drugs that affect the metabolism of fatty acids and/or neutral lipids.

Life Technologies’ HCS LipidTOX™ reagents and kits were developed and optimized for the detection of phopholipidosis and steatosis. They are available as stand alone reagents in a range of colors, and are also provided in multiplex kits complete with segmentation tools and positive control compounds for induction of phospholipidosis and steatosis.





Figure 7—Phospholipid and neutral-lipid staining in HepG2 cells using the HCS LipidTOX™ Phospholipidosis and Steatosis Detection Kit. HepG2 (human hepatocellular carcinoma) cells were left untreated (panel A and panel C),  treated with 30 µM propranolol (panel B) or treated with 30 µM cyclosporin A (panel D). Each treatment lasted 48 hours. Cells were then labeled with LipidTOX™ Red phospholipid stain ( panels A and B) or LipidTOX™ Green neutral lipid stain (panels C and D) according to the protocol supplied with the HCS LipidTOX™ Phospholipidosis and Steatosis Detection Kit. A dramatic increase in phospholipid levels (panel B) or neutral lipid levels (panel D) is observed in response to drug treatments. This figure depicts phospholipidosis and steatosis staining as separate experiments. The LipidTOX™ probes can also be used sequentially on the same cell sample.