Cholesterol efflux monitoring in macrophage form cells by using fluorescence lifetime imaging

Macrophages play a key role in atherosclerotic plaque destabilization and rupture, since they accumulate large amounts of lipid through the uptake of modified lipoproteins which results in foam cell formation. Cholesterol efflux is the process of removing cholesterol from macrophages in the subintima of the vessel wall, and efflux mechanism in a cell is one of the critical issues for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. High density lipoproteins (HDL) stimulate cholesterol efflux from macrophage foam cells in the arterial wall. Radioisotope-labeled cholesterol analysis method is well known conventional method for observing cholesterol efflux. The major drawback of this method is its long and complicated process. Fluorescence intensity imaging schemes are replacing the radioisotope-labeled method in recent years for cholesterol efflux monitoring. Various spectroscopic methods are also adapted for cholesterol efflux imaging. Here we present a fluorescence lifetime imaging method for more quantitative observation of cholesterol efflux process in macrophages, which enables us to observe cholesterol level changes with various conditions. We used J774 macrophage cell and 25-NBD-cholesterol which is a famous cholesterol specific dye. Our lifetime imaging results clearly show cholesterol efflux rate very effectively. We believe that fluorescence lifetime analysis is new and very powerful for cholesterol imaging or monitoring.