A novel polarity-sensitive fluorescent probe for lighting up lipid droplets and its application in discriminating dead and living zebrafish

In the present study, we developed a novel fluorescent chemosensor with a hybrid structure of 3-pyridinonitrilecoumarin derivatives by molecular design strategy that can effectively label intracellular lipid droplets. Interestingly, the probe ATOP-LD also exhibited polarity-sensitive properties, which may be attributable to its own strong electron-giving and electron-absorbing moieties. In addition, the probe exhibited excellent interference resistance, pH stability and low biotoxicity and had been successfully applied to cell imaging. Also, probe ATOPLD could discriminate dead and living zebrafish or its embryos. These satisfactory properties prove that the probe is useful and possesses great potential for application.