Development of lipid targeting Raman probes for in vivo imaging of Caenorhabditis elegans

Abstract

A simple, sensitive, and highly specific lipid targeting Raman probe (Nile red coated silver nanoparticles) has been developed to image living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans). Our idea of imaging lipids in C. elegans is to combine the specificity of the fluorescent dye, Nile red, and the highly enhanced Raman scattering on the silver nanoparticles. Our strategy involves the fabrication of a lipid targeting probe, which is incorporated into the intracellular intestinal granules of C. elegans by incubating these worms in the solution containing Raman probes, resulting in an uptake and subsequent incorporation of these Raman probes into the intestinal granule, thus allowing fast visualization of lipid droplets through a conventional confocal imaging technique.