title: Amphiphilic BODIPY derivatives: the solvophobic effect on their photophysical properties and bioimaging in living cells.
abstract: Three novel amphiphilic BODIPY derivatives were prepared and their photophysical properties in THF/water mixtures with varying fractions of water were investigated. BDP-1 could self-assemble into different vesicle architectures in aqueous solution, while BDP-2 and BDP-3 with more hydrophilic abilities formed spherical and worm-like micelles. The BODIPY derivatives could be absorbed by HeLa cells and showed no apparent toxicity during the course of the test. In particular, unlike traditional amines or morpholinyl functionalized lysosome fluorescent probes, BDP-1 nanovesicles without targeted groups exhibit red emission and show effective lysosome biological imaging. Co-staining experiments with lysosome specific trackers further confirmed the disassembly of BDP-1 nanovesicles in lysosomes. This research provides a new avenue of using probes without targeting the structural unit to stain special organelles and shows potential applications in cell imaging fields.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Power Metallurgy, Department of Polymer Materials and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410083, P. R. China. gckuang@csu.edu.cn and College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410083, P. R. China. yzhangcsu@csu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Lan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Power Metallurgy, Department of Polymer Materials and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410083, P. R. China. gckuang@csu.edu.cn and College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410083, P. R. China. yzhangcsu@csu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ya-Jian
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Power Metallurgy, Department of Polymer Materials and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410083, P. R. China. gckuang@csu.edu.cn and College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410083, P. R. China. yzhangcsu@csu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jia-Fu
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Organo-pharmaceutical Chemistry, Gannan Normal University, Ganzhou, Jiangxi 341000, P. R. China. wyq@gnnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yongquan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: College of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, Shandong 266580, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Haiming
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410083, P. R. China. yzhangcsu@csu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Power Metallurgy, Department of Polymer Materials and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410083, P. R. China. gckuang@csu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Gui-Chao
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Kuang
mesh_terms: D001896:Boron Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D008247:Lysosomes / Q000737:chemistry*; D008823:Micelles
chemical_list: C095489:4,4-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene; D001896:Boron Compounds; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D008823:Micelles