Mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), as a key indicator of mitochondrial function, can reflect the cellular health status. The dysfunction of MMP, even the subtle unusual changes, can greatly affect the intracellular bioactivities, causing various diseases, such as keratitis, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and even cancer. Thus, detecting the variation of MMP has great significance for biological research and medical diagnosis. Due to the advantages of real-time and in-situ monitoring, a variety of organic fluorescent probes have been developed in recent years for the detection of MMP. However, this interesting and frontier topic has not been reviewed so far. In this review, we will focus on several kinds of recent organic fluorescent probes that have provided insights into MMP detection, including design concepts, responding mechanisms and applications of the representative examples. In addition, there are still some shortcomings and limitations of existing fluorescent probes on MMP detection, such as susceptible to interference, unquantifiable detection, and lack of clinical application. This critical review may promote the development of more robust MMP fluorescent probes, providing more powerful tools for researching basic biology to improve cancer diagnoses and treatments in clinics in the future.

线粒体膜电位（MMP）作为线粒体功能的关键指标，可以反映细胞的健康状况。MMP的功能障碍，甚至微妙的异常变化，都可以极大地影响细胞内的生物活性，导致各种疾病，例如角膜炎，糖尿病，阿尔茨海默氏病甚至癌症。因此，检测MMP的变化对生物学研究和医学诊断具有重要意义。由于实时和原地的优势监测，近年来已开发出多种有机荧光探针来检测MMP。但是，到目前为止，尚未对此有趣而前沿的话题进行审查。在本文中，我们将重点介绍几种最近的有机荧光探针，这些探针为MMP检测提供了见识，包括设计概念，响应机制和代表性实例的应用。此外，现有的荧光探针在MMP检测中仍然存在一些缺点和局限性，例如易受干扰，检测方法无法量化以及缺乏临床应用。这项重要的评论可能会促进更强大的MMP荧光探针的开发，为研究基础生物学提供更强大的工具，以改善将来在临床中的癌症诊断和治疗。