Abstract
The second near-infrared window ranged between 900 and 1400 nm, namely NIR-II, has advantages for deep tissue imaging with extrinsic fluorophores due to lacking autofluorescence, low light absorption, and reduced scattering. Most of the proposed probes were used for labeling with antibodies. As a new application, we plan to monitor electrical activity in a living tissue noninvasively using membrane potential dye with NIR-II fluorescence. So we need the excitable cell culture system to screen candidates of such dyes. C2C12 skeletal myoblasts were morphologically differentiated to myotubes under the optimal conditions, and the electrical stimulation-induced contraction of the myotubes was monitored optically. This myotube system would permit screening membrane potential dyes in NIR-II.
