title: Long-term two-photon neuroimaging with a photostable AIE luminogen.
abstract: In neuroscience, fluorescence labeled two-photon microscopy is a promising tool to visualize ex vivo and in vivo tissue morphology, and track dynamic neural activities. Specific and highly photostable fluorescent probes are required in this technology. However, most fluorescent proteins and organic fluorophores suffer from photobleaching, so they are not suitable for long-term imaging and observation. To overcome this problem, we utilize tetraphenylethene-triphenylphosphonium (TPE-TPP), which possesses aggregation-induced emission (AIE) and two-photon fluorescence characteristics, for neuroimaging. The unique AIE feature of TPE-TPP makes its nanoaggregates resistant to photobleaching, which is useful to track neural cells and brain-microglia for a long period of time. Two-photon fluorescence of TPE-TPP facilitates its application in deep in vivo neuroimaging, as demonstrated in the present paper.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentations, Centre for Optical and Electromagnetic Research, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Sensing Technologies; JORCEP (Sino-Swedish Joint Research Center of Photonics), Zhejiang University, 310058 Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentations, Centre for Optical and Electromagnetic Research, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Sensing Technologies; JORCEP (Sino-Swedish Joint Research Center of Photonics), Zhejiang University, 310058 Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Zhenfeng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Chris Wai Tung
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Leung
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Zijingang Campus, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: Wang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xi
authors.affiliation: Bioelectromagnetics Laboratory, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: Liling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Bioelectromagnetics Laboratory, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: Guangdi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: SCUT-HKUST Joint Research Laboratory, Guangdong Innovative Research Team, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology (SCUT), Guangzhou 510640, China.
authors.forename: Anjun
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China ; SCUT-HKUST Joint Research Laboratory, Guangdong Innovative Research Team, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology (SCUT), Guangzhou 510640, China.
authors.forename: Ben Zhong
authors.initials: BZ
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentations, Centre for Optical and Electromagnetic Research, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Sensing Technologies; JORCEP (Sino-Swedish Joint Research Center of Photonics), Zhejiang University, 310058 Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Sailing
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: He
keywords: (160.2540) Fluorescent and luminescent materials; (160.4890) Organic materials; (170.3880) Medical and biological imaging; (180.2520) Fluorescence microscopy; (180.4315) Nonlinear microscopy; (190.4180) Multiphoton processes