Indocyanine Green (ICG) has been used most extensively in the field of
retinal angiography for fluorescence contrast imaging on fundus cameras. It
is a very deep red fluorescing probe, and provides better depth penetration
for retinal contrast enhancement during angiography.

One word of warning is that the appearance of ICG on the market and its
demonstrated utility for retinal imaging caused a number of the fundus
camera manufacturers to redesign the optical paths of their instruments,
because most glass lenses etc have infrared blocking coatings which
prevented visualisation of the dye. This may also prove to be the case on
optical microscopes as well, so it would be worthwhile running some
red-transparency tests on your microscopes before putting too much effort
into experimental trials. In principle, however, ICG should be a good dye
for patch clamping, tracing processes etc. It is available from Molecular
Probes. So far as I am aware, its use has not really been exploited for
cell biology applications.

BILL MASON

At 16:29 01/09/98 -0700, you wrote:
>David, According to Amersham, Cy7 was pulled off the market because there
>were instability problems with unconjugated Cy7.  They are trying to
>resolve the instability issues.  You might be able to get a sample of the
>original Cy7, if they have any left.
>
>Indocyanine green, with a spectrum shifted further red, was
>recently suggested to me.  Has anyone tried it for microinjection or
>patch clamping?
>
>Regards,
>Glen
>
>
>Glen MacDonald
>   Research Scientist
>Hearing Research Laboratories of the
>Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center
>Box 35-7923
>University of Washington
>Seattle, WA  98195-7923
>(206) 616-4156
>[log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>
>On Tue, 1 Sep 1998, David Jeffrey Driver wrote:
>
>> Greetings,
>>
>> I was wondering if any of you out there had any idea where I would be
>> able to obtain unconjugated Cy7 dye or streptavidin-Cy7. I have been able
>> to locate Cy7-APC and a few other conjugates, but not the unconjugated
form.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> David
>>
>> _________________________
>> David Driver
>> Graduate Student
>> Department of Immunology
>> Duke University Medical Center
>> Jones Building
>> Box 3010
>> Durham, NC 27710
>>
>> 919.613.7822
>> [log in to unmask]
>> ________________________
>>
>