Fluorescent Probe for the Monitoring of Plasma Membrane Hydration

Abstract

AbstractSubcellular microenvironment plays a crucial role in maintaining cell homeostasis being hydration an essential parameter to monitor the variations of lipid organization in biological membranes. Fluorescent microenvironment‐sensitive probes are stimuli‐responsive molecules and able to change their fluorescence profile according to the microenvironment properties (polarity, hydration, microviscosity and tension). Here we present an organic fluorescent probe, NPM‐1, as a new microenvironmental dye with selective plasma membrane localization in live cells. Using high‐resolution confocal microscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy, we explored the hydration and polarity variations during the formation of apoptotic bodies in real time. To have a clear understanding of the cell microenvironment variations, an analogue polarity probe able to localize the cytosol and nucleoli was also synthetized, CellPol‐1. Then, we were able to monitor the subcellular hydration variations during the apoptotic body dynamics.