Lipid to store? Send in the Seipin: Dissecting the Critical Roles for Seipin in Cellular and Organismal Lipid Storage.

储存脂肪是一种非常有效的方式，可以在过剩的时候保留能量，以便在营养素较少时使用。从化学上讲，脂肪以包裹着特殊蛋白质的液滴形式储存在活细胞内。这在简单的生物体中是真实的，如酵母，它只由一个细胞组成，以及在人类中。在人类和其他动物中，大多数脂质储存在专门的脂肪细胞中。动物进化出脂肪细胞，这样储存的脂肪就可以远离体内的其他细胞。这一点很重要，因为过多的脂肪可能对这些其他细胞有毒。例如，在肥胖症中，脂肪细胞不堪重负，脂肪溢出，在肝脏和血管壁等地方堆积。这会导致肥胖相关的疾病，如脂肪肝，糖尿病和心脏病。我们对一种叫做seipin的蛋白质感兴趣，它在体内脂肪的储存中起着关键作用。少数缺乏seipin蛋白质的人无法制造脂肪细胞。因为这些人没有地方安全地储存脂肪，他们会患上脂肪肝、严重的糖尿病和心血管疾病。seipin蛋白的确切作用尚不清楚，但它需要允许干细胞转化为新的脂肪细胞。Seipin还参与使脂肪滴在细胞内正确形成。近年来，我们发现seipin就像细胞中的一个对接站，组织其他蛋白质，使它们能够一起工作并执行重要功能。通过这样做，seipin组织蛋白质来调节细胞中的脂肪储存，但也组织蛋白质一起将干细胞转化为新的脂肪细胞。我们知道seipin结合的一些蛋白质，但我们不知道哪些蛋白质是脂肪细胞发育或细胞内脂肪储存所需的。该项目将专门针对不同的蛋白质结合事件，以确切地研究seipin枢纽以及哪些相关蛋白质如何控制脂肪储存和新脂肪细胞的生成。总体而言，这个项目将确切地解释为什么我们需要seipin来制造新的脂肪细胞，但也将揭示细胞如何制造和储存脂肪的新信息。然后，这些信息可以用来寻找改善人类脂肪储存的新方法，这是随着我们年龄增长或体重增加而出现的问题。如果我们能找到使脂肪细胞正常工作的方法，这可能会揭示预防或治疗与肥胖和衰老有关的主要疾病的新方法，如糖尿病，心脏病和几种癌症。

Storing fat is a highly effective way to retain energy in times of excess so that it can be used later when nutrients are less freely available. Chemically, fat is stored inside living cells in droplets coated in specialised proteins. This is true in simple organisms such as yeast, which are made up of only one cell, as well as in humans. In humans and other animals, most lipid is stored in specialised fat cells. Animals evolved fat cells so that the stored fat could be kept away from other cells in the body. This is important because too much fat can be toxic to these other cells. For example, in obesity fat cells get overwhelmed and the fat overflows, building up in places like the liver and walls of the blood vessels. This causes obesity associated diseases like fatty liver, diabetes and heart disease. We are interested in a protein called seipin which plays a critical role in the storage of fat in the body. A rare group of people who lack the seipin protein are not able to make fat cells. Because these people have nowhere to safely store fat they get fatty liver disease, severe diabetes and cardiovascular problems. Exactly what the seipin protein does remains unclear but it is needed to allow stem cells to turn into new fat cells. Seipin is also involved in making fat droplets form properly inside the cells. In recent years we have discovered that seipin works like a docking station in the cells organising other proteins so that they can work together and perform important functions. By doing this seipin organises proteins to regulate fat storage in the cell but also organises proteins that work together to turn stem cells into new fat cells. We know some of the proteins that seipin binds, but we don't know which ones are actually needed for fat cell development or the storage of fat within the cells.This project will specifically target different protein binding events to work out exactly how the seipin hub, and which associated proteins, control fat storage and new fat cell generation.Overall, this project will work out exactly why we need seipin to make new fat cells but will also reveal new information about how cells make and store fat. This information can then be used to find new ways to improve fat storage in humans, something that goes wrong as we age or gain weight. If we find ways to can make fat cells work properly this could reveal new ways to prevent or treat major diseases linked to obesity and ageing like diabetes, heart disease and several forms of cancer.