School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, WA, 6845, Australia.
Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Curtin University, Perth, WA, 6845, Australia.
Top Curr Chem (Cham). 2022 Aug 17;380(6):46. doi: 10.1007/s41061-022-00400-x.
Fluorescence microscopy is a key tool in the biological sciences, which finds use as a routine laboratory technique (e.g., epifluorescence microscope) or more advanced confocal, two-photon, and super-resolution applications. Through continued developments in microscopy, and other analytical methods, the importance of lipids as constituents of subcellular organelles, signalling or regulating molecules continues to emerge. The increasing recognition of the importance of lipids to fundamental cell biology (in health and disease) has prompted the development of protocols and techniques to image the distribution of lipids in cells and tissues. A diverse suite of spectroscopic and microscopy tools are continuously being developed and explored to add to the "toolbox" to study lipid biology. A relatively recent breakthrough in this field has been the development and subsequent application of metal-based luminescent complexes for imaging lipids in biological systems. These metal-based compounds appear to offer advantages with respect to their tunability of the photophysical properties, in addition to capabilities centred around selectively targeting specific lipid structures or classes of lipids. The presence of the metal centre also opens the path to alternative imaging modalities that might not be applicable to traditional organic fluorophores. This review examines the current progress and developments in metal-based luminescent complexes to study lipids, in addition to exploring potential new avenues and challenges for the field to take.
荧光显微镜是生物学中的重要工具，可作为常规实验室技术（例如，落射荧光显微镜）或更先进的共聚焦、双光子和超分辨率应用。通过显微镜技术和其他分析方法的不断发展，脂质作为亚细胞细胞器、信号或调节分子组成部分的重要性不断显现。脂质对基础细胞生物学（在健康和疾病中）的重要性的日益认识促使人们开发了用于在细胞和组织中成像脂质分布的方案和技术。一系列不断发展和探索的光谱和显微镜工具被用来丰富研究脂质生物学的“工具箱”。该领域的一个相对较新的突破是开发和随后应用金属基发光配合物来对生物系统中的脂质进行成像。与传统的有机荧光团相比，这些金属基化合物在光物理性质的可调谐性方面似乎具有优势，并且还具有选择性靶向特定脂质结构或脂质类别的能力。金属中心的存在也为可能不适用于传统有机荧光团的替代成像模式开辟了道路。本综述探讨了用于研究脂质的基于金属的发光配合物的最新进展和发展，并探讨了该领域的潜在新途径和挑战。
