Solvent polarity and pH effects on the spectroscopic properties of neutral red: Application to lysosomal microenvironment probing in living cells

Neutral red is a lysosomal probe and a biological pH indicator. In aqueous solutions, the protonated (NRH) and neutral (NR) forms of monomeric neutral red exhibit distinct absorption maxima (535 and 450 nm, respectively) but have the same fluorescence with a maximum at 637 nm and a quantum yield of 0.02. The similarity of the fluorescence spectra at acidic and basic pH suggests deprotonation of cationic species in the first singlet excited state. The NR fluorescence strongly depends on the solvent polarity as shown by addition of increasing amounts of water to pure dioxane, which gradually shifts the fluorescence maximum from 540 nm in pure dioxane to 637 nm in water. The fluorescence quantum yield increases from 0.17 in dioxane to 0.3 upon addition of 7% water and then decreases, reaching 0.02 in pure water. Immediately after incubation of human skin fibroblasts with neutral red, excitation with 435 nm light produces a fluorescence whose maximum is recorded at 575 nm. This fluorescence is located in the perinuclear region and originates from large fluorescent intracytoplasmic spots, suggesting staining of the endoplasmic reticulum-Golgi complex. At longer times, this fluorescence is shifted to 606 nm, suggesting slow diffusion of the lysosomotropic dye toward the more hydrated and acidic interior of lysosomes. Addition of a lysosomotropic detergent to cells previously incubated with neutral red shifts the fluorescence to the blue. Thus, in complex biological systems, this probe cannot be a good pH indicator but is a very sensitive probe of lysosomal microenvironments.