Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 8, 2026

Fluorescence-mediated Tomography for the Detection and Quantification of Macrophage-related Murine Intestinal Inflammation
Published on: December 15, 2017
Water-soluble Tb3+ and Eu3+ complexes with ionophilic (ionically tagged) ligands as fluorescence imaging probes
Julia R Diniz1, José R Correa, Daniel de A Moreira
1Laboratory of Medicinal and Technological Chemistry, University of Brasilia (IQ-UnB), Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro, CEP 70904970, P.O. Box 4478, Brasilia-DF, Brazil.
Abstract:
This article describes a straightforward and simple synthesis of ionically tagged water-soluble Eu(3+) and Tb(3+) complexes (with ionophilic ligands) applied for bioimaging of invasive mammal cancer cells (MDA-MB-231). Use of the task-specific ionic liquid 1-methyl-3-carboxymethyl-imidazolium chloride (MAI·Cl) as the ionophilic ligand (ionically tagged) proved to be a simple, elegant, and efficient strategy to obtain highly fluorescent water-soluble Eu(3+) (EuMAI) and Tb(3+) (TbMAI) complexes. TbMAI showed an intense bright green fluorescence emission selectively staining endoplasmic reticulum of MDA-MB-231 cells.
Related Concept Videos
Labeling DNA Probes
Radioisotopes, fluorophores, or small molecule binding partners like biotin or digoxigenin, are the most widely used reporter tags for labeling DNA probes. These labels can be attached to the probe DNA molecule via...
Photoluminescence: Applications
Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy
