A novel profluorescent nitroxide as a sensitive probe for the cellular redox environment.

Changes to the redox status of biological systems have been implicated in the pathogenesis of a wide variety of disorders. Sensitive quantification of these changes has been developed using a novel fluorescent probe containing a redox-sensitive nitroxide moiety. As well as being able to selectively detect the superoxide radical in vitro, this method can measure overall changes to the cellular redox environment using flow cytometry on the basis of nitroxide reduction. The reversible nature of the probe's detection mechanism offers the unique advantage of being able to monitor redox changes in both oxidizing and reducing directions in real time.