Water-Soluble Quantum Dots for Multiphoton Fluorescence Imaging in Vivo

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 300; no. 5624; pp. 1434 - 1436
• Main Authors: Larson, Daniel R., Zipfel, Warren R., Williams, Rebecca M., Clark, Stephen W., Bruchez, Marcel P., Wise, Frank W., Webb, Watt W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 30.05.2003; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Adipose Tissue; Adipose tissues; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Blood Flow Velocity; Cadmium Compounds; Capillaries; Capillaries - anatomy & histology; Crystallization; Dextrans; Diagnostic Imaging; Fluorescein-5-isothiocyanate - analogs & derivatives; Fluorescence; Fluorescent Dyes; Fluoroscopy; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Grants; Imaging; Imaging systems; Mice; Microscopy; Microscopy - methods; Molecular and cellular biology; Nanocrystals; Nanotechnology; Observations; Organic Chemistry; Photons; Quantum dots; Quantum optics; Scientific imaging; Selenium Compounds; Semiconductors; Skin; Solubility; Spectrometry, Fluorescence; Sulfides; Water; Wavelengths; Zinc Compounds; United States; Genetics
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1083780

The use of semiconductor nanocrystals (quantum dots) as fluorescent labels for multiphoton microscopy enables multicolor imaging in demanding biological environments such as living tissue. We characterized water-soluble cadmium selenide-zinc sulfide quantum dots for multiphoton imaging in live animals. These fluorescent probes have two-photon action cross sections as high as 47,000 Goeppert-Mayer units, by far the largest of any label used in multiphoton microscopy. We visualized quantum dots dynamically through the skin of living mice, in capillaries hundreds of micrometers deep. We found no evidence of blinking (fluorescence intermittency) in solution on nanosecond to millisecond time scales.