A mitochondrial-targeted two-photon fluorescent probe for imaging hydrogen sulfide in the living cells and mouse liver tissues

•Fast response to H2S with a large turn-on fluorescence signal.•Image exogenous and endogenous H2S in living cells.•Localized in Mitochondria with a high colocalization coefficient.•Imaging H2S in living tissues with deep tissue penetration.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), as signaling molecule, plays a crucial role in many biological processes in living organisms. At the organelle level, we need to study tools to explain the complexity of physiological H2S in mitochondria. Toward this goal, we have developed a new example of a fast responsive and mitochondrial-targeted two-photon fluorescent H2S probe (MT-HS) with a large turn-on fluorescence signal (40-fold fluorescence enhancement). The addition of H2S to MT-HS results a dramatic fluorescence enhancement around 540 nm. The probe could image exogenous and endogenous H2S in living cells and the probe was located in mitochondria with high colocalization coefficient compared with Mitochondrial-Tracker. The large fluorescence enhancement of the two-photon probe MT-HS renders it attractive for imaging H2S in living tissues with deep tissue penetration.

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