Using a single biological element as a photonic component with well-defined features has become a new intriguing paradigm in biophotonics. Here we show that endogenous lipid droplets in the mature adipose cells can behave as fully biocompatible microlenses to strengthen the ability of microscopic imaging as well as detecting intra- and extracellular signals. By the assistance of biolenses made of the lipid droplets, enhanced fluorescence imaging of cytoskeleton, lysosomes, and adenoviruses has been achieved. At the same time, we demonstrated that the required excitation power can be reduced by up to 73%. The lipidic microlenses are finely manipulated by optical tweezers in order to address targets and perform their real-time imaging inside the cells. An efficient detecting of fluorescence signal of cancer cells in extracellular fluid was accomplished due to the focusing effect of incident light by the lipid droplets. The lipid droplets acting as endogenous intracellular microlenses open the intriguing route for a multifunctional biocompatible optics tool for biosensing, endoscopic imaging, and single-cell diagnosis.

使用单个生物元件作为具有明确特征的光子组件已成为生物光子学中一个新的有趣范例。在这里，我们证明成熟脂肪细胞中的内源性脂滴可以充当完全生物相容性的微透镜，以增强显微成像以及检测细胞内和细胞外信号的能力。在由脂滴制成的生物透镜的帮助下，已经实现了细胞骨架、溶酶体和腺病毒的增强荧光成像。同时，我们证明所需的励磁功率最多可降低 73%。脂质微透镜由光镊精细操纵，以定位目标并在细胞内进行实时成像。由于脂滴对入射光的聚焦作用，实现了对细胞外液中癌细胞荧光信号的有效检测。作为内源性细胞内微透镜的脂滴为用于生物传感、内窥镜成像和单细胞诊断的多功能生物相容性光学工具开辟了有趣的途径。