Affiliation: | 1. Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM), Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200127 China;2. Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM), Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200127 China Research Center for Advanced Materials and Biotechnology, Research Institute of Tsinghua University in Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518057 China These authors contributed equally to this work.;3. Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, The MOE Key Laboratory of Spectrochemical Analysis and Instrumentation, State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Department of Chemical Biology, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005 China These authors contributed equally to this work.;4. Department of Chemistry, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433 China |
Abstract: | Deepening our understanding of mammalian gut microbiota has been greatly hampered by the lack of a facile, real-time, and in vivo bacterial imaging method. To address this unmet need in microbial visualization, we herein report the development of a second near-infrared (NIR-II)-based method for in vivo imaging of gut bacteria. Using d -propargylglycine in gavage and then click reaction with an azide-containing NIR-II dye, gut microbiota of a donor mouse was strongly labeled with NIR-II fluorescence on their peptidoglycan. The bacteria could be readily visualized in recipient mouse gut with high spatial resolution and deep tissue penetration under NIR irradiation. The NIR-II-based metabolic labeling strategy reported herein, provides, to the best of our knowledge, the first protocol for facile in vivo visualization of gut microbiota within deep tissues, and offers an instrumental tool for deciphering the complex biology of these gut “dark matters”. |