Principles of Bioluminescence Imaging (2011)

For centuries, sailors and those at sea have reported seeing seas aglow with a dim light or light seen on disturbing the seawater by oars. These “legends” of the sea are now thought to be caused by bioluminescent bacteria or dino-¨agellates [1]. Christopher Columbus reported lights in the sea near the coast of San Salvador, and Sir Frances Drake described tropical re¨ies in the East Indies. In addition, Shakespeare’s Hamlet addressed the glowworm’s luminescence capabilities [2]. Partly due to the mysterious nature of these phenomena, bioluminescence has attracted the interest of researchers as long ago as Aristotle’s time; he was the rst to record self-luminosity of bioluminescent organisms, and in 1555, Conrad Gesner published the rst book onCONTENTS13.1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 237 13.2 Principles of Bioluminescence .................................................................238 13.3 Tracking Cell Survival Using Bioluminescence Imaging .................... 241 13.4 Monitoring Stem Cell Behavior ............................................................... 242 13.5 Monitoring Drug/Stem Cell Distribution .............................................. 244 13.6 Monitoring Cell Biology and Gene Expression ..................................... 244 13.7 Advantages and Limits of Bioluminescence Imaging .......................... 24413.7.1 Image Limitations .......................................................................... 245 13.7.2 Penetration Depth .......................................................................... 245 13.7.3 Light Scattering .............................................................................. 245 13.7.4 Autoluminescence ......................................................................... 245 13.7.5 Luciferase Substrate ....................................................................... 246 13.7.6 Sensitivity ........................................................................................ 24613.8 Comparing Bioluminescence Imaging to Other Imaging Modalities ................................................................................................... 24713.9 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 248 Acknowledgments .............................................................................................. 248 References ............................................................................................................. 249bioluminescence and chemiluminescence [2,3]. About 40 years ago, characterization of the various luciferases began [4,5], which has led to the broad applications of in vivo bioluminescence imaging (BLI) modalities available to date. Many research groups worldwide contributed to the development of BLI applications following the initial characterization, when hurdles such as the proper instrumentation for detecting weak optical signals [6], the understanding of the optical properties of mammalian tissue [7], and the design of specic reporter genes with the ability to produce detectable optical signals in living animals [8,9] needed to be overcome.