Fascinating new knowledge on hypotonic vacuoles from a collaborative effort between Kent State Univ, Hamburg and Salzburg.
Despite the well-described and long-understood rationale for vacuoles in lower order eukaryotes little work has been done to determine the conditions for and source of vacuoles in mammalian cell systems. This new work published in Scientific Reports and led by Prof. Michael Model (Kent State Univ.) further classifies watery vacuoles, their origins and includes a newly described vacuole resulting from hypotonic environments and specifically, it transpires, from a low-chloride environment.
To confirm that these indeed were lipid-encapsulated watery vacuoles the cells were labelled with lipophilic probes, including DRAQ9™.
Prof. Model commented in a recent product review:
“..DiI that we tried before failed to stain the vacuoles, but with DRAQ9 the result was unequivocally positive: a bright staining was easily detectable under a confocal microscope..”
“..DiI that we tried before failed to stain the vacuoles, but with DRAQ9 the result was unequivocally positive: a bright staining was easily detectable under a confocal microscope..”
Reference:
Zook, E., Pan, Y.E., Wipplinger, A. et al. Delayed vacuolation in mammalian cells caused by hypotonicity and ion loss. Sci Rep 14, 29354 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-79815-z
