Development of imidazoline-2-thiones based two-photon fluorescence probes for imaging hypochlorite generation in a co-culture system.

We designed and prepared the imidazoline-2-thione containing OCl(-) probes, PIS and NIS, which operate through specific reactions with OCl(-) that yield corresponding fluorescent imidazolium ions. Importantly, we demonstrated that PIS can be employed to image OCl(-) generation in macrophages in a co-culture system. We have also employed two-photon microscopy and PIS to image OCl(-) in live cells and tissues, indicating that this probe could have wide biological applications.