Meng Yachu, Guo Jianhua, Xu Hongmei, Shuang Shaomin, Dong Chuan
Institute of Environmental Science and School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, 030006, China.
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanxi University of Electronic Science and Technology, Linfen, 041000, China.
Talanta. 2025 May 15;287:127625. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2025.127625. Epub 2025 Jan 23.
Lipid droplets (LDs) are essential organelles used to store lipids and participate in cellular lipid metabolism. Imaging LDs is an intuitive approach to comprehend their biological functions. Herein, the LDs-targeted CDs (LD-CDs) featuring robust solvatochromic emission were elaborately designed by a Schiff base reaction using 1, 2-diamino-4-fluorobenzene, 3-dimethylaminophenol, and thiourea as precursors. The LD-CDs exhibited a remarkable sensitivity to polarity changes over a broad linear range (0.0205-0.3213), owing to its unique intramolecular charge transfer effect (ICT). Moreover, the favorable lipophilicity of LD-CDs endows it with the capability to light up LDs with high specificity. Due to their good lipophilicity and biocompatibility, the LD-CDs were able to differentiate cancer cells from normal cells and keep real-time track of LDs dynamic behaviors, including dissociation, migration, and fusion. Leveraging the multifunctionality of LD-CDs, we have also observed the dynamic changes of lysosomes and LDs during lipophagy. Additionally, the LD-CDs were employed to reveal the polarity change of LDs in living cells and zebrafish under oleic acid stimulation and to visualize lipid metabolism in zebrafish. We deem that this work will expand the applications of CDs in biological imaging and make further contributions to the field of LDs-associated metabolism and diseases.
脂滴（LDs）是用于储存脂质并参与细胞脂质代谢的重要细胞器。对脂滴进行成像直观地理解其生物学功能。在此，通过席夫碱反应，以1,2-二氨基-4-氟苯、3-二甲基氨基苯酚和硫脲为前体，精心设计了具有强溶剂化显色发射特性的靶向脂滴的碳点（LD-CDs）。由于其独特的分子内电荷转移效应（ICT），LD-CDs在较宽的线性范围内（0.0205-0.3213）对极性变化表现出显著的敏感性。此外，LD-CDs良好的亲脂性使其能够以高特异性点亮脂滴。由于其良好的亲脂性和生物相容性，LD-CDs能够区分癌细胞和正常细胞，并实时跟踪脂滴的动态行为，包括解离、迁移和融合。利用LD-CDs的多功能性，我们还观察了脂噬过程中溶酶体和脂滴的动态变化。此外，LD-CDs被用于揭示油酸刺激下活细胞和斑马鱼中脂滴的极性变化，并可视化斑马鱼中的脂质代谢。我们认为这项工作将扩展碳点在生物成像中的应用，并为脂滴相关的代谢和疾病领域做出进一步贡献。
