Forthrightly monitoring ferroptosis induced by endoplasmic reticulum stresses through fluorescence lifetime imaging of microviscosity increases with a specific rotor

To test the hypothesis that the microviscosity changes of Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) can be a useful indicator of ferroptosis promoted by ER Stresses (ERS), a new ER targeting viscosity rotor, L-Vis-1 was developed and applied in the quantitation of viscosity by FLIM imaging in live cells. The FLIM imaging exhibited an excellent resolution almost as good as the corresponding confocal imaging, more significantly, during ferroptosis processes promoted by different types of ERS, the viscosity increases were clearly monitored by FLIM of L-Vis-1 within ER, which has not been demonstrated before. [Display omitted] For monitoring ferroptosis in a convenient way, a specific probe has been developed to quantitatively visualize viscosity changes of any designated ER regions during differen ferroptosis processes via fluorescence lifetime imaging.