Tracking of mercury ions in living cells with a fluorescent chemodosimeter under single- or two-photon excitation.
Tracking of Hg2+ in solutions as well as in living cells was conducted with a fluorescent chemodosimeter by measuring the spectral shift of its fluorescence under single- or two-photon excitation. The spectral hypsochromic shifts of this chemodosimeter when reacting with Hg2+ were found to be about 50 nm in acetonitrile/water solutions and 32 nm in Euglena gracilis 277 living cells. This chemodosimeter shows high sensitivity and selectivity, and is not influenced by the pH values. It can signal Hg2+ in solutions down to the ppb range under either single-photon excitation (SPE) at 405 nm or two-photon excitation (TPE) at 800 nm. However, with low cellular chemodosimeter concentrations, the SPE spectra were disturbed by the auto-fluorescence from the native fluorophore in the cell, while the TPE spectra were still of high quality since the two-photon absorption cross section of this chemodosimeter is much larger than that of the native fluorophores in the cell.
State Key Lab for Advanced Photonic Materials and Devices, Department of Optical Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
Zhou-Jun
ZJ
Lu
Pei-Nan
PN
Wang
Yu
Y
Zhang
Ji-Yao
JY
Chen
Shen
S
Zhen
Bing
B
Leng
He
H
Tian
D002413:Cations, Divalent / Q000737:chemistry; D002460:Cell Line; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*; D015394:Molecular Structure; D010670:Phenylthiourea / Q000031:analogs & derivatives; D017785:Photons; D012996:Solutions; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*
D002413:Cations, Divalent; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D012996:Solutions; D010670:Phenylthiourea; D008628:Mercury; C037877:benzylthiourea