Aurone Derivative Revealing the Metabolism of Lipid Droplets and Monitoring Oxidative Stress in Living Cells

Anal Chem. 2020 May 5;92(9):6631-6636. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.0c00456. Epub 2020 Apr 22.

Abstract

Lipid droplets (LDs) are closely connected to many physiological processes and abnormal LDs are related to many diseases. Herein, a family of two-photon fluorescence compounds based on the aurone skeleton were developed as efficient LDs imaging probes. They exhibit the obvious solvatochromism effect from blue to orange emission (∼140 nm shift) in various solvents. The robust probes possess low toxicity to living cells, high photobleaching resistance, and superior photostability and can light up LDs with high specificity. Furthermore, the probe DMMB (aurone skeleton with dimethylamino) was carefully applied in real-time monitoring of the morphological changes of LDs and the interactions between LDs and mitochondria under specific physiological conditions (e.g., starvation). We have observed for the first time the dynamic change between mitochondria and LDs when mitochondrial damage is caused by a large excess of H2O2 in a short period of time.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Benzofurans / chemistry
  • Benzofurans / metabolism*
  • Cell Survival / drug effects
  • Humans
  • Lipid Droplets / chemistry
  • Lipid Droplets / metabolism*
  • Molecular Probes / chemistry
  • Molecular Probes / metabolism*
  • Molecular Probes / pharmacology
  • Molecular Structure
  • Oleic Acid / analysis
  • Optical Imaging
  • Oxidative Stress
  • Tumor Cells, Cultured

Substances

  • Benzofurans
  • Molecular Probes
  • aurone
  • Oleic Acid