A porous Eu(III)-containing MOF: selective detection of Cr2O72– and treatment activity on the uterine fibroids by reducing TGF-β production and mmp expression

Abstract

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) composed of metal ions and organic ligands via the coordination bonds have evolved as an emerging class of functional materials showing promising applications in the fluorescent detection and biomedicine, however, seldom reports combine the two properties in one type of MOF-based materials. Herein, a novel metal–organic framework (MOF) material containing Eu(III) of {[Eu(HL)(H2O)](DMF)3(H2O)4}n (1) based on 9-(2,6-dicarboxy-pyridin-4-yl)-9H-carbazole-3,6-dicarboxylic acid (H4L), a tetracarboxylic ligand, has been prepared under the solvothermal conditions. Furthermore, this Eu-MOF reflects strong red luminescence and outstanding water stability, which in-depth demonstrate it is a kind of luminescent sensor with highly sensitive and selective for the Cr2O72–, and it possesses low limit of detection and high coefficient of quenching. More importantly, complex 1 could be reused at least for fives without loss of the detection performance and framework integrity, which is quite rare among MOF-based sensors for Cr2O72–. In addition, the treatment effect of compound against the uterine fibroids was assessed in biological research. The detection of enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was firstly conducted to determine the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) content levels produced by the endometrial cells. Next, the mmp7 and mmp3 relative expression levels in the endometrial cells were detected via the real time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method.