Issue 2, 2020

Combining hydrophilic and hydrophobic environment sensitive dyes to detect a wide range of cellular polarity

Abstract

Intracellular polarity is an important parameter of pathological and biological phenomena of cells; abnormal polarities are associated with diabetes, neurological diseases, and cancer. However, previously reported polarity probes have issues with quantitatively detecting intracellular polarities, can measure only a limited range of polarities, and can only detect specific intracellular regions. Here, we developed a novel two-dye system, RPS-1, that contains a new “turn-on” polarity probe (Dye1) based on a spiropyran intramolecular ring closing–opening system activated in polar protic solvents, and a benzothiadiazole containing dye (Dye3), which emits only in non-polar solvents with a large stoke shift. Individually, Dye1 and Dye3 selectively localized to lysosome and lipid droplets, respectively; however, combining these dyes, which have completely different characteristics, via a piperazine linker resulted in the staining of various intracellular organelles. Therefore, as Dye1 and Dye3 have the same absorption but different emissions, combining them resulted in a ratiometric polarity probe that could quantitatively measure a wider polarity range inside the cell using a single excitation source. In addition, ratiometric imaging using our RPS-1 probe to quantitatively detect the distribution of polarity in different cell lines indicated that lysosomes were the most polar organelles in the cell.

Graphical abstract: Combining hydrophilic and hydrophobic environment sensitive dyes to detect a wide range of cellular polarity

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
26 sep 2019
Accepted
23 nov 2019
First published
25 nov 2019
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2020,11, 596-601

Combining hydrophilic and hydrophobic environment sensitive dyes to detect a wide range of cellular polarity

S. J. Park, V. Juvekar, J. H. Jo and H. M. Kim, Chem. Sci., 2020, 11, 596 DOI: 10.1039/C9SC04859F

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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