Visualizing fewer than 10 mouse T cells with an enhanced firefly luciferase in immunocompetent mouse models of cancer.

ABSTRACT: Antigen specific T cell migration to sites of infection or cancer is critical for an effective immune response. In mouse models of cancer, the number of lymphocytes reaching the tumor is typically only a few hundred, yet technology capable of imaging these cells using bioluminescence has yet to be achieved. A combination of codon optimization, removal of cryptic splice sites and retroviral modification was used to engineer an enhanced firefly luciferase (ffLuc) vector. Compared with ffLuc, T cells expressing our construct generated >100 times more light, permitting detection of as few as three cells implanted s.c. while maintaining long term coexpression of a reporter gene (Thy1.1). Expression of enhanced ffLuc in mouse T cells permitted the tracking of <3 x 10(4) adoptively transferred T

SUBMITTER: Rabinovich BA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2567214 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature