Water-soluble triarylborane chromophores for one- and two-photon excited fluorescence imaging of mitochondria in cells

Stefanie Griesbeck, Zuolun Zhang, Marcus Gutmann, Tessa Lühmann, Robert M. Edkins, Guillaume Clermont, Adina N. Lazar, Martin Haehnel, Katharina Edkins, Antonius Eichhorn, Mireille Blanchard-Desce*, Lorenz Meinel, Todd B. Marder

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

75 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Three water-soluble tetracationic quadrupolar chromophores comprising two three-coordinate boron π-acceptor groups bridged by thiophene-containing moieties were synthesised for biological imaging applications. Compound 3 containing the bulkier 5-(3,5-Me2C6H2)-2,2′-(C4H2S)2-5′-(3,5-Me2C6H2) bridge is stable over a long period of time, exhibits a high fluorescence quantum yield and strong one- and two-photon absorption (TPA), and has a TPA cross section of 268 GM at 800 nm in water. Confocal laser scanning fluorescence microscopy studies in live cells indicated localisation of the chromophore at the mitochondria; moreover, cytotoxicity measurements proved biocompatibility. Thus, chromophore 3 has excellent potential for one- and two-photon-excited fluorescence imaging of mitochondrial function in cells.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)14701-14706
Number of pages6
JournalChemistry - A European Journal
Volume22
Issue number41
Early online date15 Sept 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Oct 2016

Funding

T.B.M. is grateful for generous financial support from the Bavarian State Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts for the Collaborative Research Network ?Solar Technologies go Hybrid?. Z.Z. and R.M.E. thank the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for Postdoctoral Research Fellowships. R.M.E also thanks The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 for a research fellowship. M.B.D. is grateful for generous funding from the R?gion Aquitaine (chair of excellence). This study has also been carried out with financial support from the French State, managed by the French National Research Agency (ANR) in the frame of ?the Investments for the future? Programme IdEx Bordeaux - LAPHIA (ANR-10-IDEX-03-02). The two-photon microscopy was carried out at the Bordeaux Imaging Center, a service unit of the CNRS-INSERM and Bordeaux University, a member of the national infrastructure France BioImaging. Financial support by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; ME-3820/3-1) is gratefully acknowledged by L.M.

Keywords

  • boron
  • fluorescence
  • fluorescent probes
  • imaging agents
  • nonlinear optics

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