The plasma membrane (PM) plays a major role in many biological processes; therefore, its proper fluorescence staining is required in bioimaging. Among the commercially available PM probes, styryl dye FM1-43 is one of the most widely used. In this work, we demonstrated that fine chemical modifications of FM1-43 can dramatically improve the PM staining. The newly developed probes, SP-468 and SQ-535, were found to display enhanced photophysical properties (reduced cross-talk, higher brightness, improved photostability) and, unlike FM1-43, provided excellent and immediate PM staining in 5 different mammalian cell types including neurons (primary culture and tissue imaging). Taking advantage of these features, we successfully used SP-468 in STED super resolution neuronal imaging. Additionally, we showed that the new probes displayed differences in their internalization pathways compared to their parent FM1-43. Finally, we showed that the new probes kept the ability to stain the PM of plant cells. Overall, this work presents new useful probes for PM imaging in cells and tissues and provides insights on the molecular design of new PM targeting molecules.
质膜(PM)在许多
生物过程中发挥着重要作用,因此在
生物成像中需要对其进行适当的荧光染色。在市售的质膜探针中,
苯乙烯基
染料 FM1-43 是应用最广泛的探针之一。在这项工作中,我们证明了对
FM1-43 进行精细
化学修饰可显著改善 PM 染色效果。与
FM1-43 不同,新开发的探针
SP-468 和 SQ-535 显示出更强的光物理特性(减少串扰、提高亮度、改善光稳定性),并能在包括神经元在内的 5 种不同哺乳动物细胞类型(原代培养和组织成像)中提供出色的即时 PM 染色。利用这些特点,我们成功地将
SP-468 用于 STED 超分辨率神经元成像。此外,我们还发现,与母体
FM1-43 相比,新探针的内化途径有所不同。最后,我们还发现新探针保持了对植物细胞PM染色的能力。总之,这项工作为细胞和组织中的 PM 成像提供了新的有用探针,并为新的 PM 靶向分子的分子设计提供了启示。