Bioimaging nitric oxide in activated macrophages in vitro and hepatic inflammation in vivo based on a copper–naphthoimidazol coordination compound

Nitric oxide (NO) serves as a messenger for cellular signaling and physiological reactions such as inflammatory responses in vivo. Fluorescent bioimaging of nitric oxide is a very useful tool in NO functional research. Although many encouraging results have been achieved in the field of NO fluorescent detection, there is rarely satisfying result in inflammatory NO imaging in vivo. Here we report that fluorescent 5′-chloro-2-(2′-hydroxyphenyl)-1H-naphtho[2,3-d]imidazol can coordinate with Cu(II) to form a non-fluorescent coordination compound, which is able to directly and quickly image NO in cellular system or in vivo inflammation system with a turn-on fluorescence, based on a redox action of Cu(II). It was used to image NO produced by inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) activated murine macrophages. More importantly, it could image the NO production in an acute severe hepatic injury (ASHI) model of BALB/c mice induced by integrative LPS and d-galactosamine (GalN) treatment. The results prove that the 5′-chloro-2-(2′-hydroxyphenyl)-1H-naphtho[2,3-d]imidazol coordinated with cupric ions can serve as an excellent NO bioimaging agent in different biological systems especially in inflammation related systems, and it may be valuable for diagnostic and pathological studies of NO related diseases.