<i>J</i>-Aggregates of Cyanine Dye for NIR-II <i>in Vivo</i> Dynamic Vascular Imaging beyond 1500 nm

Light in the second near-infrared window, especially beyond 1500 nm, shows enhanced tissue transparency for high-resolution <i>in vivo</i> optical bioimaging due to decreased tissue scattering, absorption, and autofluorescence. Despite some inorganic luminescent nanoparticles have been developed to improve the bioimaging around 1500 nm, it is still a great challenge to synthesize organic molecules with the absorption and emission toward this region. Here, we present <i>J</i>-aggregates with 1360 nm absorption and 1370 nm emission formed by self-assembly of amphiphilic cyanine dye FD-1080 and 1,2-dimyristoyl-<i>sn</i>-glycero-3-phosphocholine. Molecular dynamics simulations were further employed to illustrate the self-assembly process. Superior spatial resolution and high signal-to-background ratio of <i>J</i>-aggregates were demonstrated for noninvasive brain and hindlimb vasculature bioimaging beyond 1500 nm. The efficacy evaluation of the clinically used hypotensor is successfully achieved by high-resolution <i>in vivo</i> dynamic vascular imaging with <i>J</i>-aggregates.