Analytische Chemie
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Current challenges and objectives for non-invasive optical bioimaging are deep tissue penetration, high detection sensitivity, high spatial and temporal resolution, and fast data acquisition. A promising spectral window to tackle these challenges is the short-wave infrared (SWIR) ranging from 900 nm to 1700 nm where scattering, absorption, and autofluorescence of biological components are strongly reduced compared to the visible/NIR. At present, the best performing SWIR contrast agents are based on nanomaterials containing toxic heavy-metal ions like cadmium or lead, which raises great concerns for biological applications. Promising heavy-metal free nanoscale candidates are gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) and Ag2S nanoparticles (NPs). The photoluminescence (PL) of both types of nanomaterials is very sensitive to their size, composition of their surface ligand shell, and element composition, which provides an elegant handle to fine-tune their absorption and emission features and boost thereby the size of the signals recorded in bioimaging studies.
Aiming for the development of SWIR contrast agents with optimum performance, we dived deeper into the photophysical processes occurring in these nanomaterials, thereby exploring in depth how the environment, surface ligand composition, and the incorporation of transition metals influence the optical properties of AuNCs and Ag2S NPs. We observed a strong enhancement of the SWIR emission of AuNCs upon exposure to different local environments (in solution, polymer, and in the solid state). Addition of metal ions such as Zn2+ to Ag2S based NPs led to a strong PL enhancement, yielding PL quantum yields of about 10% and thus making them highly suitable for non-invasive deep imaging of vascular networks and 3D fluid flow mapping.
Biological systems exhibit a very high complexity, because they consist of various cell populations showing heterogenic characteristics. Therefore the individual analysis of single cells is important to understand cellular processes as well as their function in a cell system. Especially investigation in the question about what is biological variability and what is a substantial difference between two cells of the same type (which might lead to dysfunction or disease) is of high interest. Today improved spatial and temporal resolution enable the use of laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) for element microscopy of single cells. Next to the characterization of natural trace elements the introduction of artificial metal labels into cells is of high interest. Element labeling of cell compartments and/or proteins allows its simultaneous analysis and localization within a cell via element microscopy. Two fast and simple metal staining procedures of adherent cells for identification of single cells via LA-ICP-MS at sub micrometer resolution are presented. An Iridium-intercalator is utilized to stain the cell nuclei whereas the whole cell is stained by maleimido-mono-amide-DOTA-complexes (mDOTA) loaded with lanthanide(III) isotope ions. The metal staining procedures allow the visualization of single cells by element microscopy independent of a superposition of analyte’s 2D element intensity profile with a prior taken bright field image of the sample.