The fabrication of luminescent polymeric nanoparticles with aggregation induced emission (AIE) properties has been extensively investigated in recent years for their distinct optical properties, biocompatibility and designability. Although a number of AIE-active nanoparticles have been fabricated previously, the AIE-active nanoprobes based on carbohydrate polymers have received only limited attention. In this work, we reported for the first time that AIE-active organic nanoparticles could be prepared via a facile one-step strategy. To fabricate these AIE-active nanoparticles, the AIE dye 9,10-bis (divinylphenylboronic acid) anthracene (An-B(OH)(2)) terminated with phenylboronic acid was synthesized using anthracene as core chemical structure. After mixing with the An-B(OH)(2) and dextran, the resultant products (An-Dex) can be obtained through formation of phenyl borate in aqueous solution, air atmosphere and under room temperature. The intermediates and An-Dex were characterized by a series of characterization techniques including H-1 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy. To further explore the biomedical applications of these glycosylated AIE-active nanoparticles, cell viability as well as cell imaging performance of An-Dex nanoparticles was also examined. We demonstrated that An-Dex nanoparticles showed strong fluorescent intensity, great water dispersibility and excellent biocompatibility. More importantly, it is well known that phenyl borate is a dynamic bond, which can potentially response to the pH and glucose. Therefore, the resultant AIE-active probes should be promising candidates for different biomedical applications such as biological imaging and controlled drug delivery. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.