Citation: Fengkai Zou, Borui Su, Han Leng, Nini Xin, Shichao Jiang, Dan Wei, Mei Yang, Youhua Wang, Hongsong Fan. Red-emissive carbon quantum dots minimize phototoxicity for rapid and long-term lipid droplet monitoring[J]. Chinese Chemical Letters, ;2024, 35(10): 109523. doi: 10.1016/j.cclet.2024.109523 shu

Red-emissive carbon quantum dots minimize phototoxicity for rapid and long-term lipid droplet monitoring

Fengkai Zou ^{a, b, 1} ,
Borui Su ^{c, 1} ,
Han Leng ^d ,
Nini Xin ^c ,
Shichao Jiang ^c ,
Dan Wei ^c ,
Mei Yang ^d ,
Youhua Wang ^{a, *,} ,
Hongsong Fan ^{c, *,}

a.
Department of Orthopedics, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong 226001, China
b.
Graduate School, Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116044, China
c.
National Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials, College of Biomedical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China
d.
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China

wangyouhua99@163.com

hsfan@scu.edu.cn

Received Date: 9 November 2023
Revised Date: 11 January 2024
Accepted Date: 12 January 2024
Available Online: 20 January 2024

Figures(6)

Long-term fluorescence monitoring of subcellular organelles is crucial for cellular physiology and pathology studies. Lipid droplets (LDs) are increasingly recognized for their involvement in various biological processes, to influence disease development through diverse behaviors However, existing LD probes face challenges in achieving high targeting and long-term monitoring due to poor photostability and long-term phototoxicity. Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) have gained prominence due to their exceptional fluorescence properties, but their prevalent blue excitation wavelength presents difficulties for long-term imaging. Herein, we synthesized red-emissive carbon quantum dot (R-CQDs) with superior photobleaching resistance and red-emission, thus enabling harmlessly fluorescence monitoring of cells longer than 3 h. In addition, R-CQD exhibits suitable amphiphilicity and remarkable solvatochromic effect, allowing rapid targeting to LDs for immediate imaging without cumbersome washing steps. Hence, R-CQD shows high performance for extended observation of dynamic LD behavior in various biological processes, which is confirmed by documenting the course of LDs during starvation as well as lipotoxicity. Compared to commercial probes, R-CQD extends live cell imaging time by at least 9-fold, facilitating the study of LD behavioral characteristics under diverse physiological or pathological conditions. This work provides a reliable fluorescence tool for tracking intercellular microenvironment dynamically thus to understand the divers biological or disease mechanism.
- Carbon quantum dots,
- Solvatochromism,
- Lipid droplet probe,
- Fluorescence imaging,
- Wash-free
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