CONTEXT

Radioactive markers have been widely used in the field of medical imaging and immunology. On account of the drawbacks of these markers, they have largely been replaced with fluorescent markers. However, the use of fluorescent markers presents a number of drawbacks, especially due to the auto-fluorescence of the biological media studied and to the scattering of light in the machines. Lanthanide ion complexes have been proposed to allow a time-resolved acquisition that eliminates these drawbacks. In order to be used as a time-resolved luminescent marker, a lanthanide ion complex must have numerous characteristics, the most important of which are hydrophilicity, stability in water, the presence of chromophores capable of generating the antenna effect, good photophysical properties and a reactive function that allows covalent grafting. The compounds currently proposed rarely combine all of these criteria and their stability also poses serious problems.