The Droplet Gatekeeper
You want it low, and the genetic evidence is unusually clean: animals lacking it show enhanced fat release, less body fat and better insulin sensitivity together. It works by blunting the messenger signal right at the droplet surface. Read the number, not the family name: this is galectin-twelve. The Galectin Inhibitor product targets galectin-three. Different members of one family; the evidence does not transfer.
In depth
A lectin sitting on the fat droplet itself that holds release down — a different protein from the galectin-3 targeted elsewhere in this catalog.
What drives it
The Anchor increases it.
'VACUOLAR protein sorting 13C (VPS13C), a novel lipid droplet protein, was identified as a major GALECTIN12-binding protein that is required for GALECTIN12 protein stability. Consistently, knockdown of VPS13C leaded to GALECTIN12 degradation primarily through the lysosomal pathway'. doi 10.3389/fphys.2022.826314
What it drives
It reduces Releases stored fat.
This edge replaces one drawn on the wrong protein. The evidence was first placed on the galectin-3 node; it is galectin-twelve. Verbatim: 'Galectin12 is an endogenous lectin preferentially expressed in adipose tissue and located on lipid droplets in adipocytes... galectin12 deficiency in mice results in enhanced lipolysis, reduced adiposity, and ameliorated IR' (doi 10.3389/fphys.2022.826314). The family name is not the protein: the Galectin Inhibitor product targets galectin-3, and no evidence transfers between family members. doi 10.3389/fphys.2022.826314
It reduces The cell's go-signal.
'loss of galectin12 increases the efficiency of cAMP signaling at the lipid droplet, perhaps by altering the recruitment OR function of a phosphodiesterase, and consequentially promoting PKA-dependent recruitment of lipases to lipid droplets' (doi 10.3389/fphys.2022.826314). The source states its own gap: 'the precise mechanism of lipolysis control by galectin12 is not clear.' Its partner VPS13C is required for its stability, and deleting VPS13C also raises release. doi 10.3389/fphys.2022.826314
See it on the map
Open the causal map to follow this pathway upstream and downstream, arrow by arrow, each with its study.