Comparison of red-shifted firefly luciferase Ppy RE9 and conventional Luc2 as bioluminescence imaging reporter genes for in vivo imaging of stem cells.

ABSTRACT: One critical issue for noninvasive imaging of transplanted bioluminescent cells is the large amount of light absorption in tissue when emission wavelengths below 600 nm are used. Luciferase with a red-shifted spectrum can potentially bypass this limitation. We assessed and compared a mutant of firefly luciferase (Ppy RE9, PRE9) against the yellow luciferase luc2 gene for use in cell transplantation studies. C17.2 neural stem cells expressing PRE9-Venus and luc2-Venus were sorted by flow cytometry and assessed for bioluminescence in vitro in culture and in vivo after transplantation into the brain of immunodeficient Rag2-/- mice. We found that the luminescence from PRE9 was stable, with a peak emission at 620 nm, shifted to the red compared to that of luc2. The emission peak for PRE9 was pH

SUBMITTER: Liang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3380811 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature