Issue 1, 2019

Real time bioimaging for mitochondria by taking the aggregation process of aggregation-induced emission near-infrared dyes with wash-free staining

Abstract

Fluorescent probing is one of the most powerful methods for bioimaging and/or detecting certain biological species. However, the problem of aggregation-caused quenching in aqueous environments limits the development of high performance fluorophores. In this study, three compounds were designed from triphenylpyrrole (TPP) derivatives with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics and were applied to real-time mitochondrial imaging. These TPP derivatives emitted near-infrared (NIR) signals by using indolium as an acceptor, both pyrrole and triphenylamine as donors, and ethenylidene as a π-bridge between the acceptors and donors. The combination of AIE features with NIR emission provides a wash-free procedure for staining the mitochondria in various live cells in less than 10 s. Moreover, the process of signal turn-on could be tracked by taking full advantage of the slow aggregation behavior of the dyes. In addition, the dyes also showed excellent photostabilities under laser irradiation for up to 6 h.

Graphical abstract: Real time bioimaging for mitochondria by taking the aggregation process of aggregation-induced emission near-infrared dyes with wash-free staining

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Research Article
Submitted
24 Aug. 2018
Accepted
19 Okt. 2018
First published
22 Okt. 2018

Mater. Chem. Front., 2019,3, 57-63

Real time bioimaging for mitochondria by taking the aggregation process of aggregation-induced emission near-infrared dyes with wash-free staining

F. Ren, P. Liu, Y. Gao, J. Shi, B. Tong, Z. Cai and Y. Dong, Mater. Chem. Front., 2019, 3, 57 DOI: 10.1039/C8QM00425K

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements