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Updated: Aug 23, 2025
Author Spotlight: Analysis of Fluorescent-Stained Lipid Droplets with 3D Reconstruction for Hepatic Steatosis Assessment
Published on: June 2, 2023
Aggregation-induced emission fluorescent probes for lipid droplets-specific bioimaging of cells and atherosclerosis
Ying Zhang1, Weihua Zhuang2, Jingruo Chen2
1Laboratory of Heart Valve Disease, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, 37 Guoxue Road, Chengdu 610041, China; Department of Cardiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, 37 Guoxue Road, Chengdu 610041, China.
Abstract:
Visualizing lipid droplets (LDs) using fluorescence imaging is highly desirable for the diagnosis and treatment of atherosclerotic heart diseases. However, the imaging performance of the current commercial lipid probes is unsatisfactory. In this study, we prepared two probes (TTM and MeO-TTM) with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) properties for LD imaging with efficiency. Interestingly, TTM and MeO-TTM showed low emissions in H2O but their emissions were significantly increased in oil. Moreover, TTM and MeO-TTM showed great biocompatibility and intracellular LDs would be specifically illuminated by these probes with good resistance to photobleaching. In addition, TTM and MeO-TTM also exhibited great imaging performance in studying the spatial distribution of LDs in mouse atherosclerotic plaques. This work not only provides a simple tool for studying atherosclerosis but also hopes to enhance the development of fluorescent probes for LDs-specific imaging applications.
