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.