Imaging and Detection of Hepatocellular Carcinoma with a Hepatocyte-Specific Fluorescent Probe

Hepatocellular carcinoma is a highly invasive malignant tumor of the liver, which is the main cause of cancer-related death. The cancerization of hepatocytes may lead to the changes of cell microenvironment, active substances, and enzymes. Viscosity is one of the important parameters of cell microenvironment. Therefore, the study of the change in the viscosity of hepatocytes is very important for the detection and treatment of liver cancer. However, the hepatocyte-specific fluorescent probes which can detect viscosity have not been developed yet. Herein, the first hepatocyte-specific fluorescent probe (HT-V) for viscosity detection was designed and synthesized, which exhibited excellent optical properties for biological imaging studies. By using the unique probe HT-V, compared with the normal liver cells, a significant increase of viscosity in the liver cancer cells was observed in the cell imaging experiment. The organ imaging experiments showed that the probe HT-V could be successfully used to diagnose and image hepatocellular carcinoma in vivo. In addition, in situ imaging revealed that the new probe HT-V can specifically target and image hepatocellular carcinoma in mice. We expected that this powerful tool may provide guidance for the detection and imaging of hepatocellular carcinoma in the future.