Abstract: The invention discloses fluorescent chelator compounds that are especially useful to monitor and measure cytosolic concentrations of alkali metal cations such as Na.sup.+, K.sup.+, and Li.sup.+. The new compounds are comprised of: (1) crown ethers (that may or may not have substituent groups attached to the core carbons, but will always contain at least one core nitrogen) that are linked via the core nitrogen(s) to at least one (2) fluorophore that contains an additional heteroaromatic liganding center. In the currently preferred dye, SBFI, the core compound is crown ether 1,7-diaza-4,10,13-trioxacyclopentadecane and the heteroaromatic fluorophores are benzofurans that are linked to isophthalate groups. Selectivities for Na.sup.+ over K.sup.+ of about 20 are observed, resulting in effective dissociation constants for Na.sup.+ of about 20 mM against a background of 120 mM K.sup.+. Increasing ?Na.sup.

Abstract: The present invention discloses a new class of calcium chelating compounds which have a decreased affinity for calcium following illumination. These new compounds contain a photolabile nitrobenzyl derivative coupled to a tetracarboxylate Ca.sup.2+ chelating parent compound having the octacoordinate chelating groups characteristic of EGTA or BAPTA. However unlike EGTA or BAPTA-like compounds, in which the two halves of the chelator are linked by a simple 1,2-ethanediyl moiety, the compounds of the present invention modify the stereochemical conformation of this linkage by adding bulky substituents or incorporating the linkage into a carbocyclic or heterocyclic ring. In a first form, the new compounds are comprised of a BAPTA-like chelator coupled to a single 2-nitrobenzyl derivative, which in turn is a photochemical precursor of a 2-nitrosobenzophenone.