Stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy is a super-resolution technique that allows the diffraction limit to be bypassed, which makes it possible to observe the structures that we can’t see with light microscopes. Due to high use of STED microscopes in natural science, the requirements for specific fluorescence probes are also high. For use in STED microscopy, the probes must have adequate excitation and emission spectra that coincide with excitation and STED lasers, and in addition, an appropriate structure that allows selective labeling of a specific area.
Within the master’s thesis, two types of fluorescence probes suitable for the study of cell membranes and/ or liquid droplets and/or lipid droplets were synthesized. The probes are based on the coumarin and phenoxazine skeleton. In the end, we measured the excitation and emission spectra for the compounds based on witch we confirmed the influence of certain structural fragments on excitation and emission. The final compounds
were sent to the Institute Jožef Stefan, where they were used in the labeling of the plasma membrane, liquid crystal and/or lipid drops, followed by the STED experiments.
Biological samples and liquid crystals were labeled with the probes and evaluated based of the selectivity of distribution between membranes, selectivity of liquid lipid drops, photostability and cytotoxicity. All four synthesized probes met the expectations regarding selectivity of labeling. In the first part, we compared the probes that were synthesized in order to label the plasma membrane. The diaryloxazole skeleton based probe labels the cell membranes and photobleaches a little more than the coumarine based one. Nevertheless, the first compound may be a good starting point for the development of new probes that have very large Stokes shifts. For both probes, the effect of the successful use of a double positive charge can be seen, thus keeping the compounds for a longer time in the plasma membrane itself. The 4-cyano coumarin and the Nile red derivate are also more photostable than diaryloxazole derivative, which can be explained with the coumarine skeleton, moreover, the signal comes primarily from lipid droplets.
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