In vivo imaging of light-emitting probes

Bradley W. Rice; Michael D. Cable; Michael B. Nelson

doi:10.1117/1.1413210

1 October 2001 In vivo imaging of light-emitting probes

Bradley W. Rice, Michael D. Cable, Michael B. Nelson

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Journal of Biomedical Optics, Vol. 6, Issue 4, (October 2001). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.1413210

In vivo imaging of cells tagged with light-emitting probes, such as firefly luciferase or fluorescent proteins, is a powerful technology that enables a wide range of biological studies in small research animals. Reporters with emission in the red to infrared (>600 nm) are preferred due to the low absorption in tissue at these wavelengths. Modeling of photon diffusion through tissue indicates that bioluminescent cell counts as low as a few hundred can be detected subcutaneously, while ~106 cells are required to detect signals at ~2 cm depth in tissue. Signal-to-noise estimates show that cooled back-thinned integrating charge coupled devices (CCDs) are preferred to imageintensified CCDs for this application, mainly due to their high quantum efficiency (~85%) at wavelengths >600 nm where tissue absorption is low. Instrumentation for in vivo imaging developed at Xenogen is described and several examples of images of mice with bioluminescent cells are presented.

©(2001) Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

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Bradley W. Rice, Michael D. Cable, and Michael B. Nelson "In vivo imaging of light-emitting probes," Journal of Biomedical Optics 6(4), (1 October 2001). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.1413210

Published: 1 October 2001

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