Development of a rechargeable optical hydrogen peroxide sensor – sensor design and biological application

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is an important member of the reactive oxygen species (ROS) family. Among ROS, H2O2 is considered the most long-lived and can accumulate inside and outside of cells, where it is involved in both vital (signaling) and deadly (toxic) reactions depending on its concentration. Quantifying H2O2 within biological samples is challenging and often not possible. Here we present a quasi-reversible fiber-optic sensor capable of measuring H2O2 concentrations ranging from 1–100 μM within different biological samples. Based on a Prussian blue/white redox cycle and a simple sensor recharging and readout strategy, H2O2 can be measured with high spatial (∼500 μm) and temporal (∼30 s) resolution. The sensor has a broad applicability both in complex environmental and biomedical systems, as demonstrated by (i) H2O2 concentration profile measurements in natural photosynthetic biofilms under light stress reaching H2O2 concentrations as high as 15 μM, and (ii) the quantification of the transient increase of the extracellular concentration of H2O2 during stimulation of neutrophils.