Two-photon fluorescent trackers for monitoring of lipid droplets (LDs) would be highly effective for illustrating the critical roles of LDs in live cells or tissues. Although a number of one-photon fluorescent trackers for labeling LDs have been developed, their usability remains constrained in live sample imaging due to photo damage, shallow imaging depth, and auto-fluorescence. Recently, some two-photon fluorescent trackers for LDs have been developed to overcome these limitations. In this mini-review article, the advances in two-photon fluorescent trackers for monitoring of LDs are summarized. We summarize the chemical structures, two-photon properties, live sample imaging, and biomedical applications of the most recent representative two-photon fluorescent trackers for LDs. Additionally, the current challenges and future research trends for the two-photon fluorescent trackers of LDs are discussed.
This work was supported by grants from the National Leading Research Lab Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), funded by the Korean government (MSIP) (NRF-2022R1A2B5B03001607), Center for Convergence Research of Neurological Disorders (NRF-2019R1A5A2026045), Basic Science Research Program (NRF-2021R1A6A1A10044950), and the Ajou University Research Fund.
