Bioluminescent indicators in living mammals

Non-viral gene transfer of murine spleen cells achieved by in vivo electroporation

“…It has recently been shown that if the light emitted in vivo from the luciferaseexpressing cells is sufficient, it can be detected in anesthetized animals through the tissues with a sensitive CCD camera. [24][25][26] We thus used this new method to visualize the luciferase activity in vivo and we also used the standard procedure to measure it on tissue samples. Indeed, we could easily detect the luciferase activity after an IME (Figure 2a).…”

Noninvasive, quantitative imaging in living animals of a mutant dopamine D2 receptor reporter gene in which ligand binding is uncoupled from signal transduction

“…Non-invasive optical techniques for monitoring firefly luciferase 1,2 and green fluorescent protein (GFP) [3][4][5] expression in living animals have been developed and applied to in vivo gene transfer models. Luciferase and GFP in vivo imaging techniques provide the advantages of non-invasive and repetitive monitoring of reporter gene expression in living animals, but are primarily qualitative/semi-quantitative and do not provide tomo-graphic images.…”

Repetitive, non-invasive imaging of the dopamine D2 receptor as a reporter gene in living animals

“…Green fluorescent protein (GFP) has recently been used for repetitive, non-invasive reporter gene imaging in living cultured cells, single cell organisms and multi-cellular organisms transparent to light. 1,2 Although in special circumstances GFP and luciferase expression can be measured in vivo in larger animals, 3,4 these reporter genes cannot generally be used for imaging in living mammals. Reporter gene systems whose expression could be repeatedly and non-invasively examined in all tissues would greatly aid in monitoring both the location and the function of DNA used in gene therapy.…”