Acridine orange as a fluorescent probe for lysosomal proton pump.

Acridine orange was found to accumulate in pure lysosomal particles (tritosomes) in vitro, and the quenching of its fluorescence correlated well with the delta pH (inside acid) across the lysosomal membrane. Use of this dye showed that Mg-ATP caused lysosomal acidification. This acidification was sensitive to N,N'-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide, N-ethylmaleimide, and azide, but not to oligomycin, ouabain or vanadate. These results supported the idea of the existence of a lysosomal H+-pump, suggested in a previous paper (Ohkuma et al. (1982) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S. 79, 2758-2762).