Real time in vivo investigation of superoxide dynamics in zebrafish liver using a single-fiber fluorescent probe.
Superoxide anion is the key radical that causes intracellular oxidative stress. The lack of a method to directly monitor superoxide concentration in vivo in real time has severely hindered our understanding on its pathophysiology. We made transgenic zebrafish to specifically express yellow fluorescent proteins, a reversible superoxide-specific indicator, in the liver and used a fiber-optic fluorescent probe to noninvasively monitor the superoxide concentration in real time. Several superoxide-inducing and scavenging reagents were administrated onto the fish to alter superoxide concentrations. The distinct biochemical pathways of the reagents can be discerned from the transient behaviors of fluorescence time courses. These results demonstrate the feasibility of this method for analyzing superoxide dynamics and its potential as an in vivo pharmaceutical screening platform.
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua 500, Taiwan.
Yu-Chung
YC
Chang
Chuian-Fu
CF
Ken
Che-Wei
CW
Hsu
Ya-Ging
YG
Liu
(060.2370) Fiber optics sensors; (170.1470) Blood or tissue constituent monitoring; (170.2655) Functional monitoring and imaging; (170.6280) Spectroscopy, fluorescence and luminescence