Exploiting the Twisted Intramolecular Charge Transfer Effect to Construct a Wash-Free Solvatochromic Fluorescent Lipid Droplet Probe for Fatty Liver Disease Diagnosis

Cheng Juan Wu*, Xin Yu Li, Ting Zhu, Mengying Zhao, Zhuoyue Song, Shijie Li, Guo Gang Shan, Guangle Niu*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

78 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The prominent pathological feature of fatty liver disease lesions is excessive fat accumulation in lipid droplets in hepatocytes. Thus, developing fluorescent lipid droplet-specific probes with high permeability and a high imaging contrast provides a robust tool for diagnosing fatty liver diseases. Herein, we rationally developed a novel donor-acceptor lipophilic fluorescent probe ANI with high photostability for wash-free visualization of lipid droplets and fatty liver disease characteristics. ANI showed a typical twisted intramolecular charge transfer effect with very faint fluorescence in high-polar solvents, but dramatically boosted emissions in low-polar environments. The solvatochromic probe can selectively light up lipid droplets with a high contrast in a wash-free manner. Further use of ANI to reveal the excessive accumulation of lipid droplets with a significantly large size in the liver tissues from the fatty liver disease model mice was successfully demonstrated. The remarkable imaging performances rendered ANI an alternative tool for accurately evaluating fatty liver disease in intraoperative diagnosis.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3881-3887
Number of pages7
JournalAnalytical Chemistry
Volume94
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 8 Mar 2022
Externally publishedYes

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Wu, C. J., Li, X. Y., Zhu, T., Zhao, M., Song, Z., Li, S., Shan, G. G., & Niu, G. (2022). Exploiting the Twisted Intramolecular Charge Transfer Effect to Construct a Wash-Free Solvatochromic Fluorescent Lipid Droplet Probe for Fatty Liver Disease Diagnosis. Analytical Chemistry, 94(9), 3881-3887. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.1c04847