Design, synthesis and application of AIE fluorescent probe for lipid raft

Lipid rafts composed of saturated phospholipids,sphingomyelin,and cholesterol are usually defined as liquid ordered microdomains located in the cell membrane. Lipid rafts are involved in many physiological and pathological processes of cells. Based on the difference in composition and distribution between lipid raft and non-raft domains,a lipid raft probe with aggregation-induced emission (AIE),cholesterol-triethylene glycol-tetraphenylethylene (TCHS-TPE),was designed and synthesized for convenient and specific imaging of lipid raft domains on cell membranes in this study. In this paper,TCHS-TPE was successfully synthesized,and the photophysical properties of TCHS-TPE were measured to evaluate its AIE characteristics. And finally the specific imaging of TCHS-TPE on the lipid raft region of B16F10 melanoma cell membrane was studied using confocal laser scanning microscopy. Compared with the existing lipid raft probe cholera toxin B (CTxB),the TCHS-TPE lipid raft probe has the advantages of simple operation and high specificity. The successful synthesis of the fluorescent probe will provide a useful tool for studying the physiological and pathological processes related to lipid raft domains,and offer a theoretical basis for the design of imaging probes for other lipid raft domains.