A highly sensitive endoplasmic reticulum-targeting fluorescent probe for the imaging of endogenous H 2 S in live cells.

Hydrogen sulfide (H ₂ S) as an important signaling biomolecule participates in a series of complex physiological and pathological processes. In situ and rapid detection of H ₂ S levels in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is of great importance for the in-depth study of its virtual functional roles. However, the ER-targeting fluorescent probe for the detection of H ₂ S in live cells is still quite rare. Herein, a new ER-targeting fluorescent probe (FER-H ₂ S) for detecting H ₂ S in live cells was characterized in the present study. This probe FER-H ₂ S was built from the hybridization of three parts, including fluorescein-based skeleton, p-toluenesulfonamide as ER-specific group, and 2,4-nitrobenzene sulfonate as a response site for H ₂ S. The response mechanism of the probe FER-H ₂ S to H ₂ S is on the basis of the ring-opening and ring-closing processes in fluorescein moiety. Moreover, the probe FER-H ₂ S was successfully used for the imaging of exogenous and endogenous H ₂ S in ER of live cells.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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