Lipid droplets (LDs) are mainly composed of phospholipid monolayers and hydrophobic cores of neutral lipids (triglycerides and cholesterol, etc.), and are widely found in animals, plants, and bacteria. Studies have shown that lipid droplets play an important role in regulating lipid metabolism, autophagy, cell differentiation and cell senescence.

Red Fluorometric Lipid Droplet Assay Kit is a kit for the detection of intracellular lipid droplets using Nile Red. Nile Red is a fluorescent probe that can label lipid droplets. Nile Red is cell-penetrating, which can be used for staining live and fixed cells. Nile Red is virtually non-fluorescent in water or other polar solvents, and emits a strong fluorescence once combined with neutral lipids such as triglycerides. Nile Red has a wide range of emission spectrum, and it has better selectivity for staining lipid droplets when viewing with green fluorescence (450-500 nm excitation; >528 nm emission) rather than red fluorescence (515-560 nm excitation; >590 nm emission).

Oil Red O is also commonly used for lipid droplet detection. However, Oil Red O staining has problems such as complex operation, time-consuming, low accuracy, and only suitable for fixed cells. Nile Red does not have the above problems, but it is not suitable for multicolor fluorescence staining due to its wide range of emission spectrum. If multicolor fluorescence staining is required, consider using BODIPY probes.

Figure 1: The efficiency of this kit for detecting lipid droplets