A bright organic NIR-II nanofluorophore for three-dimensional imaging into biological tissues.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 29563581.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-018-03505-4 and PMC identifier 5862886.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Fluorescence imaging of biological systems in the second near-infrared (NIR-II, 1000-1700 nm) window has shown promise of high spatial resolution, low background, and deep tissue penetration owing to low autofluorescence and suppressed scattering of long wavelength photons. Here we develop a bright organic nanofluorophore (named p-FE) for high-performance biological imaging in the NIR-II window. The bright NIR-II >1100 nm fluorescence emission from p-FE affords non-invasive in vivo tracking of blood flow in mouse brain vessels. Excitingly, p-FE enables one-photon based, three-dimensional (3D) confocal imaging of vasculatures in fixed mouse brain tissue with a layer-by-layer imaging depth up to ~1.3 mm and sub-10 µm high spatial resolution. We also perform in vivo two-color fluorescence imaging in the NIR-II window by utilizing p-FE as a vasculature imaging agent emitting between 1100 and 1300 nm and single-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) emitting above 1500 nm to highlight tumors in mice.
Medical subject headings
- Brain
- Fluorescent Dyes
- Imaging, Three-Dimensional
- Nanotubes, Carbon
- Optical Imaging
- Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared