Fig. 6: In vivo activatable afterglow imaging of pulmonary metastasis tumors.

a Schematic illustration of the detailed procedures of afterglow imaging of 4T1 pulmonary metastasis tumors. b Afterglow images under an 808 nm pre-irradiation (left panel), and fluorescence images (right panel) after intravenous injection of Bio-ALCNs, ALCNs or C-ALCNs (4 mg/kg Bio-ASN, ASN or C-ASN, and 0.4 mg/kg Bio-AIN, or AIN). The fluorescence images were acquired with an excitation wavelength at 480 nm and emission wavelength at 580 nm. c Ex vivo afterglow images of various tissues under an 808 nm laser pre-irradiation from 4T1 pulmonary metastasis-bearing mice at 48 h post-injection of Bio-ALCNs, ALCNs or C-ALCNs intravenously. The quantified SNRs for afterglow luminescence imaging under 808 nm pre-irradiation (d), fluorescence imaging (e) of 4T1 pulmonary metastasis tumor-bearing mice as a function of time. f Quantification of ex vivo afterglow intensities of various tissues in (c). g H&E staining images of tumor slices of mice after treatment with Bio-ALCNs, ALCNs or C-ALCNs (N: normal tissue, T: tumor tissue). The scale bar represents 100 μm. Data are presented as mean ± s.d. and analyzed by the one-way ANOVA (n = 3 mice each group). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.