High-contrast optical imaging is achievable using phosphorescent labels to suppress the short-lived background due to the optical backscatter and autofluorescence. However, the long-lived phosphorescence is generally incompatible with high-speed laser-scanning imaging modalities. Here, we show that upconversion nanoparticles of structure NaYF₄: Yb co-doped with 8% Tm (8T-UCNP) in combination with a commercial laser-scanning multiphoton microscopy are uniquely suited for labeling biological systems to acquire high-resolution images with the enhanced contrast. In comparison with many phosphorescent labels, the 8T-UCNP emission lifetime of ~ 15 μs affords rapid image acquisition. The high-order optical nonlinearity of the 8T-UCNP (n ≈ 4, as confirmed experimentally and theoretically) afforded pushing the resolution limit attainable with UCNPs to the diffraction-limit. The contrast enhancement was achieved by suppressing the background using (ⅰ) bandpass spectral filtering of the narrow emission peak of 8T-UCNP at 455-nm, and (ⅱ) time-gating implemented with a time-correlated single-photon counting system that demonstrated the contrast enhancement of > 2.5-fold of polyethyleneimine-coated 8T-UCNPs taken up by human breast adenocarcinoma cells SK-BR-3. As a result, discrete 8T-UCNP nanoparticles became clearly observable in the freshly excised spleen tissue of laboratory mice 15-min post intravenous injection of an 8T-UCNP solution. The demonstrated approach paves the way for high-contrast, high-resolution, and high-speed multiphoton microscopy in challenging environments of intense autofluorescence, exogenous staining, and turbidity, as typically occur in intravital imaging.

The cytotoxicity and non-specific cellular uptake of the most popular composition of upconversion nanoparticle (UCNP), NaYF₄: Yb³⁺: Er³⁺, is reported using normal human skin cells, including dermal fibroblasts and immortalized human epidermal linear keratinocytes (HaCaT). A new hydrophilization reaction of as-synthesized UCNPs based on tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) enabled evaluation of the intrinsic cytotoxicity of bare UCNPs. The cytotoxicity effects of the UCNP surface-coating and polystyrene host were investigated over the concentration range 62.5–125 μg/mL with 24-h incubation, using a MTT test and optical microscopy. The fibroblast viability was not compromised by UCNPs, whereas the viability of keratinocytes varied from 52% ± 4% to 100% ± 10% than the control group, depending on the surface modification. Bare UCNPs reduced the keratinocyte viability to 76% ± 3%, while exhibiting profound non-specific cellular uptake. Hydrophilic poly(D, L-lactide)- and poly(maleic anhydride-alt-1-octadecene)-coated UCNPs were found to be least cytotoxic among the polymer-coated UCNPs, and were readily internalized by human skin cells. Polystyrene microbeads impregnated with UCNPs remained nontoxic. Surprisingly, no correlation was found between UCNP cytotoxicity and the internalization level in cells, although the latter ranged broadly from 0.03% to 59%, benchmarked against 100% uptake level of TMAH-UCNPs.