For most of the 20th century, lipid droplets were treated as inert blobs of stored fat. That view collapsed around the turn of the millennium with the discovery of perilipins and an entire proteome coating the droplet surface. Lipid droplets are bona fide organelles. They are signaling hubs, sites of viral assembly, and the cellular pivot point between metabolism and inflammation.

And then MASH became the largest unmet need in metabolic disease. One in four adults globally has fatty liver. Madrigal's resmetirom got the first FDA approval in 2024, and a crowded pipeline of FGF21 analogs, GLP-1 combinations, SCD1 inhibitors, and THR-β agonists is asking the same question in hepatocyte assays: did the compound reduce lipid accumulation, in how many cells, and by how much?

The standard readout is a BODIPY stain and an image. Bulk fluorescence per well averages the distribution away. Cytely segments cells, detects every droplet, and reports count, area, total lipid fraction, and intensity per cell. The full size distribution drops out, distinguishing one giant droplet from fifty small ones, a difference that matters for lipolysis and droplet maturation.

The organelle that used to be fat is now one of the most measured structures in metabolic drug discovery.

How the assay runs

Segment cells → detect droplets in lipid channel → measure droplet count, area, and intensity per cell.

What you provide

  • Ch1: DAPI
  • Ch2: lipid dye (BODIPY 493/503, Oil Red O in fluorescence, Nile Red)
  • Optional Ch3: cell membrane or cytoplasm stain

What you get

  • Droplet count per cell
  • Droplet area
  • Total lipid area fraction
  • Mean droplet intensity

Ready to run

BODIPY, Nile Red, LipidTOX staining, brightfield (Oil Red O), multi-channel with additional markers, adipocyte-specific detection and quantification.

Inquire for support

3D droplet volume estimation, droplet fusion/fission tracking.

Explore the Lipid Droplet Quantification assay →