Engineering a ultrastable, wash-free lipid droplets probe for fatty liver disease imaging

Fatty liver disease (FLD) is a worldwide common disease characterized by the excessive accumulation of lipid droplets (LDs) in the hepatocytes. To answer the call for timely and precise diagnosis of FLD, the development of high performance LDs probe has attracted considerable attention. Herein, we have developed a new family of LDs probes, JCBC1-3, based on the integration of the classical aminocoumarin scaffold with a BF₂-Azo core through a rational stepwise molecular engineering strategy. JCBC1-3 exhibited excellent photostability (the corresponding absorbance preservation >95% after 60 min continuous irradiation under a 1 W 515 nm laser source) and effective LDM (the LDs mimetic) sensing performance. For instance, the addition of 200 μg/mL LDM to the aqueous solution of JCBC1 elicited a 42-fold fluorescence enhancement, and the corresponding detection limit for LDM can reach 32 ng/mL. Using JCBC1 as probe, the high-contrast fluorescence imaging of intracellular LDs in a wash-free, long-term continuous observation manner was successfully realized. Additionally, we further demonstrated the capability of JCBC1 to precisely identify the liver of FLD mice over healthy control, highlighting its potential utility in intraoperative diagnosis of FLD.