Aggregation-induced emission materials for cell membrane imaging

The living cells are consist of protective layer, which is called cell membrane. The cell membrane is associated with numerous biological functions and they are intensely depended on fundamental physicochemical properties of cell membrane. The cell metabolism and functions can be studied by investigating morphology of cell membrane. Cell membrane disruption causes depolarization due to which cell content leakage and cell death can occur. The fluorescence technique has been extensively used to monitor intracellular structure and for cell membrane imaging. Tang's group reported a group of fluorophore/luminophore which emit more light in the aggregated form than in solution. Aggregate formation played constructive role in this kind of luminogens in the light emitting phenomenon. The aggregated form of reported series of silole molecules/fluorophores were found to be more emissive rather than in solution. These luminophores showed exactly opposite emission behavior to ACQ and this phenomenon coined as "Aggregation-Induced Emission" (AIE). In this chapter we have given a brief review of the AIE materials for cell membrane imaging.