Biological applications of spin pH probes

The determination of pH is one of the most important problems in the biochemistry of living organisms, since many of the vital processes of cells and cellular organelles depend on the local pH value. Amongst currently used experimental approaches for the measurement of pH, the application of spin pH probes in combination with EPR spectroscopy is a comparatively new and rapidly developing field. In this article we describe the background, advantages and limitations of the method of spin pH probes, and discuss its recent applications. Availability of a wide variety of pH-sensitive nitroxides with different ranges of pH-sensitivity, labeling group and lipophilicity facilitates their application to a variety of biological systems from subcellular organelles to complex organisms. The recent progress in low-field EPR-based imaging and spectroscopy-based techniques allows spin pH probes to be used for non-invasive in vivo pH measurement and pH-sensitive imaging.