Guo Bailin, Wang Enju
Key Laboratory of Tropical Medicinal Resource Chemistry of Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Tropical Medicinal Plant Chemistry of Hainan Province, College of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, 571158, P. R. China.
J Fluoresc. 2025 Apr 10. doi: 10.1007/s10895-025-04290-2.
The cell plasma membrane is involved in diverse cellular processes and functions. The plasma membrane imaging is an effective means of revealing its morphology and dynamics. In this work, we synthesized two amphiphilic fluorophores derived from tetraphenylimidazole (TPI), one of which is a TPI monomer (MTPI) and the other is a TPI dimer (DTPI). As fluorescent molecular rotors, both of them show negligible fluorescence in HO but dramatically enhanced enhanced emission in high-viscosity media. Their amphiphilic nature enables stable anchoring within anionic micelles/vesicles, accompanied by intense fluorescence activation. It's worth stressing that DTPI exhibits much more intense emission than MTPI does, whether in high-viscosity methol/glycerol mixtures or in sodium dodecyl sulfate micelles. The cell imaging experiments demonstrated that DTPI can be used as a wash-free probe for plasma membrane visualization.
细胞质膜参与多种细胞过程和功能。质膜成像为揭示其形态和动力学提供了一种有效手段。在本研究中，我们合成了两种源自四苯基咪唑（TPI）的两亲性荧光团，其中一种是TPI单体（MTPI），另一种是TPI二聚体（DTPI）。作为荧光分子转子，它们在水中荧光可忽略不计，但在高粘度介质中发射显著增强。它们的两亲性使其能够稳定锚定在阴离子胶束/囊泡中，并伴随强烈的荧光激活。值得强调的是，无论是在高粘度甲醇/甘油混合物中还是在十二烷基硫酸钠胶束中，DTPI的发射都比MTPI强得多。细胞成像实验表明，DTPI可作为一种无需洗涤的质膜可视化探针。
