A Novel Fluorescent Probe for Detection of Hydrogen Sulfide and Its Bioimaging Applications in Living Cells

Abstract Hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S) is a critical gasotransmitter playing an important role in various physiological and pathological processes. The development of fluorescent probes for rapid, sensitive, and selective lysosomal H 2 S sensing has attracted much attention. Herein we report a rhodamine based probe MF‐N 3 that can selectively accumulate in lysosomes and give turn‐on fluorescence in the presence of both H 2 S and protons. Results show that MF‐N 3 has an exclusive response to H 2 S in the acidic lysosomal environment but does not respond in other organelles or in neutral environments. This strategy can circumvent the fluorescence interference from H 2 S of other sources, thus providing a high sensitivity and selectivity on lysosomal H 2 S imaging by fluorescence microscopy. This pH‐dependent lysosome‐targeting fluorescent probe has been successfully applied to lysosomal H 2 S imaging in living cells and is of great potential for applications to the environmental and biological systems.