Hypoxia-Sensitive Fluorescent Probes for in Vivo Real-Time Fluorescence Imaging of Acute Ischemia

Based on the findings that the azo functional group has excellent properties as the hypoxia-sensor moiety, we developed hypoxia-sensitive near-infrared fluorescent probes in which a large fluorescence increase is triggered by the cleavage of an azo bond. The probes were used for fluorescence imaging of hypoxic cells and real-time monitoring of ischemia in the liver and kidney of live mice.