Recent Research Progress of 19 F Magnetic Resonance Imaging Probes: Principle, Design and Their Application.

Visualization of biomolecules, cells and tissues, as well as metabolic processes in vivo is significant for studying the associated biological activities. Fluorine magnetic resonance imaging ( 19 F MRI) holds potential among various imaging technologies thanks to its negligible background signal and deep tissue penetration in vivo. To achieve detection on the targets with high resolution and accuracy, requirement of high-performance 19 F MRI probes are demanding. An ideal 19 F MRI probe is thought to have, first, fluorine tags with magnetically equivalent 19 F nuclei, second, high fluorine content, third, adequate fluorine nuclei mobility, as well as excellent water solubility or dispersity, but not limited to. This review summarizes the research progresses of 19 F MRI probes and mainly discuss the impacts of structures on in vitro and in vivo imaging performances. Additionally, the applications of 19 F MRI probes in ions sensing, molecular structures analysis, cells tracking and in vivo diagnosis of disease lesions are also covered in this article. From our perspectives, this review is able to provide inspirations for relevant researchers on designing and synthesizing advanced 19 F MRI probes. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.