Turn-on fluorescent probe for lipid droplet specific imaging of fatty liver and atherosclerosis

Abstract

Fluorescence imaging plays an important role in researching the biological function of lipid droplets (LDs). However, the short-wave emission, tedious synthesis process and insufficient specificity have significantly limited the applications of commercially available probes. Herein, we have prepared a novel one-step synthesized near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probe, TNBD, with a very low emission in aqueous solution and the solid state, but a significantly enhanced fluorescence emission is exhibited in oleic acid. Moreover, TNBD exhibited an impressive lipid droplet (LD) specific fluorescence turn-on ability in cells, fatty liver and atherosclerosis (AS) samples with a good biocompatibility and high signal-to-noise ratio. Our study not only establishes a novel LD turn-on fluorescence probe, but also provides a novel way to prepare a NIR LD targeted fluorescence probe.