title: A "distorted-BODIPY"-based fluorescent probe for imaging of cellular viscosity in live cells.
abstract: Cellular viscosity is a critical factor in governing diffusion-mediated cellular processes and is linked to a number of diseases and pathologies. Fluorescent molecular rotors (FMRs) have recently been developed to determine viscosity in solutions or biological fluid. Herein, we report a "distorted-BODIPY"-based probe BV-1 for cellular viscosity, which is different from the conventional "pure rotors". In BV-1, the internal steric hindrance between the meso-CHO group and the 1,7-dimethyl group forced the boron-dipyrrin framework to be distorted, which mainly caused nonradiative deactivation in low-viscosity environment. BV-1 gave high sensitivity (x=0.62) together with stringent selectivity to viscosity, thus enabling viscosity mapping in live cells. Significantly, the increase of cytoplasmic viscosity during apoptosis was observed by BV-1 in real time.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Dalian University of Technology, No. 2 Linggong Road, High-tech District, Dalian 116024 (China), Fax: (+86) 411-84986306.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Jiangli
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Miao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jianfang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Jingyun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xiaojun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Peng
mesh_terms: D001895:Boron / Q000737:chemistry; D001896:Boron Compounds / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D061986:MCF-7 Cells; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D011758:Pyrroles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D014783:Viscosity
chemical_list: C095489:4,4-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene; C000596823:BV-1 compound; D001896:Boron Compounds; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D011758:Pyrroles; D001895:Boron
keywords: dyes; fluorescent probes; imaging agents; steric hindrance; viscosity