A BODIPY-Based Fluorogenic Probe for Specific Imaging of Lipid Droplets

Guanglei Li; Jianye Li; Yu Otsuka; Shuai Zhang; Masashi Takahashi; Koji Yamada

doi:10.3390/ma13030677

A BODIPY-Based Fluorogenic Probe for Specific Imaging of Lipid Droplets

Materials (Basel). 2020 Feb 3;13(3):677. doi: 10.3390/ma13030677.

Authors

Guanglei Li¹, Jianye Li², Yu Otsuka¹, Shuai Zhang¹, Masashi Takahashi^{3

4}, Koji Yamada¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Materials Science, Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 0860-0810, Japan.
² Laboratory of Animal Genetics and Reproduction, Graduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8589, Japan.
³ Laboratory of Animal Genetics and Reproduction, Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8589, Japan.
⁴ Graduate School of Global Food Resources/Global Station for Food, Land and Water Resources, Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8589, Japan.

Abstract

We developed an easily accessible boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY)-based fluorogenic probe, which we named LD-TB. This probe emits bright fluorescence in oil; when compared with aqueous solution, a significant enhancement of fluorescence brightness is observed. Cellular experiments confirmed that the probe stains the lipid droplets (LDs) specifically in both live and fixed cells, providing background-free images. Compared with Nile Red dye, a commonly used LD marker, LD-TB showed superior photostability. The sharp absorption and emission bands enable its multicolor imaging with blue and green probes. Importantly, the probe has proved to have low toxicity and is compatible with cell fixation. Our research provides a promising new fluorogenic probe for specific imaging of LDs.

Keywords: BODIPY; fluorogenic probe; lipid droplet.