A novel polarity-sensitive fluorescent probe for lighting up lipid droplets and its application in discriminating dead and living zebrafish

Abstract

Lipid droplets (LDs) represent essential intracellular organelles that store and supply lipids, which are associated with the synthesis of many disease-related intracellular signalling molecules. Aberrant expression of lipid droplets may cause cytotoxicity, cellular dysfunction and apoptosis. Similarly, as a very critical parameter and indicator of normal cells, polarity performs a vital function in many biological processes and physiological environments. In the present study, we developed a novel fluorescent chemosensor by molecular design strategy that can effectively label intracellular lipid droplets. Interestingly, the probe ATOP-LD also exhibited polarity-sensitive properties, which may be attributable to its own strong electron-giving and electron-absorbing moieties. Iinaten addition, the probe exhibited excellent interference resistance, pH stability and low biotoxicity, and had been successfully applied to cell imaging. Also, probe ATOP-LD could discriminate dead and living zebrafish or its embryos. [Display omitted]