“…Table 3. Fluorophore-dextran conjugates and their proposed applications Fluorophores Applications anthracene Photosensitizer [81,83] pyrene (cascade blue) Imaging [72] azo dye Fundamental studies [82] coumarin Fundamental studies [82,87] FITC Fundamental studies [65,66], pH probe [86] fluorescein Photosensitizer [76,77,84], pH probe [69,79] rhodamine Imaging [67,70,80,93], pH probe [84] Fe(III) porphyrin DNA-nicking [75] Zn(II) porphyrin Photosensitizer [90] Mn(III) porphyrin Magnetic resonance imaging [85] chlorin e6 Photosensitizer [68,88,89,91,92], Imaging [89] Sn(IV) chlorin e6 Photosensitizer [71,73,74] phycobiliprotein Flow cytometry [78] Despite the breadth of studies, the fluorescence properties of fluorophore-dextran conjugates have barely been studied: only three reports are available to our knowledge [66,87,89], and their results are at apparent odds with each other depending on the nature of the fluorophore. First, fluoresceinyl isothiocyanate (FITC)-dextran conjugates retain their f values across a large range of degree of substitution (0.2, 4.3, and 23) [66].…”