Designing a green-emitting viscosity-sensitive 4,4-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza- s -indacene (BODIPY) probe for plasma membrane viscosity imaging.
Artūras PolitaMilda StancikaitėRokas ŽvirblisKarolina MaleckaitėJelena Dodonova-VaitkūnienėSigitas TumkevičiusArun Prabha ShivabalanGintaras ValinčiusPublished in: RSC advances (2023)
Viscosity is a key characteristic of lipid membranes - it governs the passive diffusion of solutes and affects the lipid raft formation and membrane fluidity. Precise determination of viscosity values in biological systems is of great interest and viscosity-sensitive fluorescent probes offer a convenient solution for this task. In this work we present a novel membrane-targeting and water-soluble viscosity probe BODIPY-PM, which is based on one of the most frequently used probes BODIPY-C 10 . Despite its regular use, BODIPY-C 10 suffers from poor integration into liquid-ordered lipid phases and lack of water solubility. Here, we investigate the photophysical characteristics of BODIPY-PM and demonstrate that solvent polarity only slightly affects the viscosity-sensing qualities of BODIPY-PM. In addition, with fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM), we imaged microviscosity in complex biological systems - large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs), tethered bilayer membranes (tBLMs) and live lung cancer cells. Our study showcases that BODIPY-PM preferentially stains the plasma membranes of live cells, equally well partitions into both liquid-ordered and liquid-disordered phases and reliably distinguishes lipid phase separation in tBLMs and LUVs.
Keyphrases
- living cells
- fluorescent probe
- water soluble
- single molecule
- particulate matter
- air pollution
- high resolution
- ionic liquid
- fatty acid
- polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
- heavy metals
- induced apoptosis
- quantum dots
- cell death
- signaling pathway
- cell proliferation
- cell cycle arrest
- fluorescence imaging
- high speed
- drug delivery
- label free
- solar cells