In vivo cell tracking with bioluminescence imaging

Abstract

Molecular imaging is a fast growing biomedical research that allows the visual representation, characterization and quantification of biological processes at the cellular and subcellular levels within intact living organisms. In vivo tracking of cells is an indispensable technology for development and optimization of cell therapy for replacement or renewal of damaged or diseased tissue using transplanted cells, often autologous cells. With outstanding advantages of bioluminescence imaging, the imaging approach is most commonly applied for in vivo monitoring of transplanted stem cells or immune cells in order to assess viability of administered cells with therapeutic efficacy in preclinical small animal models. In this review, a general overview of bioluminescence is provided and recent updates of in vivo cell tracking using the bioluminescence signal are discussed.

Keywords: Bioluminescence; Cell therapy; Cell tracking; In vivo imaging; Optical imaging.

Fig. 1

Bioluminescence reactions catalyzed by firefly, Renilla, and Gaussia luciferase

Fig. 2

a For the bioluminescence imaging study, cell mixtures (1 × 10⁶ newborn mouse fibroblasts [NFs] expressing enhanced firefly luciferase [NF-effluc], 1 × 10⁶ primary epithelial cells in a total volume of 100 μl) were injected into the hypodermis (on the right flank). Parent NFs and epithelial cells of the same number and volume were injected into the left flank. Bioluminescence imaging was acquired at 1, 3, 7, 14, and 21 days after inoculation. NF-effluc-inoculated sites were well visualized following an injection of D-luciferin but not at parental NF inoculation sites. b A decrease of total photon flux of approximately 60 % was observed on day 3, 70 % on day 7, 80 % on day 14, and 90 % on day 21 at the NF-effluc inoculation sites. (Reprinted with permission of Kim et al. [67])