ISSN 1017-2548(Print)
ISSN 2234-8530(Online)
Volume 54, Number 4
JKCSEZ 54(4)
August 20, 2010 

The fluorescence detection of intracellular metal ions are high interest in the fields of organic molecular chemistry and cellular biology. This study was purposed to detection for mercury and zinc in the cell using fluorescent chemosensor (FS). FS exhibits a weak fluorescence, but emits strong fluorescence upon Zn²⁺ complexation. The increased fluorescence of the 2FS/Zn²⁺ can be quenched completely by addition of only 1 equiv of Hg²⁺ with the formation of complex FS-Hg²⁺. Four cell lines (LLC-MK2, Hela, HT29 and AMC-HN3) were used for fluorescence imaging by confocal microscope. The cell viability MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol- 2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay was evaluated after cell treatment of FS, Zn²⁺, FS-Zn²⁺, Hg²⁺ on LLC-MK2 cell line. The cytotoxicity of FS was showed to viability over 80%. This study has shown that FS can be detected for selective imaging of Zn²⁺ and Hg²⁺ in living cells.