Fig. 4

High magnification of direct contacts between lipid bodies and mitochondria in microglial cells, as well as changes in mitochondrial membrane potential following treatment with LPS, DHA, or a combination of LPS and DHA. Few contacts between mitochondria (m) and lipid vacuoles (v) are observed in the control condition (a), and similar observations can be made following treatment with LPS (b). In the presence of DHA (c) and combined presence of LPS and DHA (d), however, direct contacts between mitochondria and lipid bodies, especially lipid vacuoles following DHA treatment and lipid droplets (asterisk) following LPS and DHA treatment, become more prevalent. e Changes in mitochondrial membrane potential of N9 microglial cells treated with DHA (5–50 μM) for 24 h. Following treatment, cells were incubated with TMRE (50 nM) for 20 min, after which the media was refreshed and cells were imaged under a fluorescent microscope. Four fields were imaged per treatment, and two cells were imaged per field. Shown are average fold increase in intracellular relative fluorescence intensities ± SEM as compared to untreated control (set to 1) from three independent experiments. Cells imaged in the absence of TMRE and cells treated with FCCP were negative controls. *p < 0.01