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Bioluminescence: Imaging Modality for In Vitro and In Vivo Gene Expression

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Advanced Protocols in Oxidative Stress I

Part of the book series: Methods In Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 477))

Abstract

Molecular imaging offers many unique opportunities to study biological processes in intact organisms. Bioluminescence is the emission of light from biochemical reactions that occur within a living organism. Luciferase has been used as a reporter gene in transgenic mice but, until bioluminescence imaging was described, the detection of luciferase activity required either sectioning of the animal or excision of tissue and homogenization to measure enzyme activities in a conventional luminometer. Bioluminescence imaging (BLI) is based on the idea that biological light sources can be incorporated into cells and animal models artificially that does not naturally express the luminescent genes. This imaging modality has proven to be a very powerful methodology to detect luciferase reporter activity in intact animal models. This form of optical imaging is low cost and noninvasive and facilitates real-time analysis of disease processes at the molecular level in living organisms. Bioluminescence provides a noninvasive method to monitor gene expression in vivo and has enormous potential to elucidate the pathobiology of lung diseases in intact mouse models, including models of inflammation/injury, infection, and cancer.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Department of Veterans Affairs, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL, USA

    Ruxana T. Sadikot

  2. Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Department of Cancer Cell Biology and Cell and Developmental Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

    Timothy S. Blackwell

Authors
  1. Ruxana T. Sadikot
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  2. Timothy S. Blackwell
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Donald Armstrong

  2. Showa University School of Medicine, Tokyo, USA

    Donald Armstrong

  3. University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Donald Armstrong

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© 2008 Humana Press, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Sadikot, R.T., Blackwell, T.S. (2008). Bioluminescence: Imaging Modality for In Vitro and In Vivo Gene Expression. In: Armstrong, D. (eds) Advanced Protocols in Oxidative Stress I. Methods In Molecular Biology, vol 477. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-517-0_29

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-517-0_29

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-60327-218-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-60327-517-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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