Seeing Elastin: A Near-Infrared Zwitterionic Fluorescent Probe for In Vivo Elastin Imaging
Dongdong Su, Chai Lean Teoh, Sung-Jin Park, Jong-Jin Kim, Animesh Samanta, Renzhe Bi, U.S. Dinish, Malini Olivo, Marie Piantino, Fiona Louis, Michiya Matsusaki, Seong Soon Kim, Myung Ae Bae, Young-Tae Chang
Index: 10.1016/j.chempr.2018.02.016
Full Text: HTML
Abstract
Elastic fibers are present in a variety of tissues and are responsible for their resilience. Until now, no optical contrast agent in the near-infrared (NIR) wavelength range of 700–900 nm has been reported for the imaging of elastic fibers. Here, we report the discovery of a NIR zwitterionic elastin probeElaNIR(elastin NIR) through fluorescent-image-based screening. The probe was successfully applied forin vitro,ex vivo, andin vivoimaging by various imaging modalities. Age-related elastin differences shown byin vivofluorescent and photoacoustic imaging indicated thatElaNIRcan be a potentially convenient tool for uncovering changes of elastin in live models.