Ferritin-EGFP Chimera as an Endogenous Dual-Reporter for Both Fluorescence and Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Human Glioma U251 Cells.

ABSTRACT: A unique hybrid protein ferritin-enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) was built to serve as an endogenous dual reporter for both fluorescence and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). It consists of a human ferritin heavy chain (an iron-storage protein) at the N terminus, a flexible polypeptide in the middle as a linker, and an EGFP at the C terminus. Through antibiotic screening, we established stable human glioma U251 cell strains that expressed ferritin-EGFP under the control of tetracycline. These cells emitted bright green fluorescence and were easily detected by a fluorescent microscope. Ferritin-EGFP overexpression proved effective in triggering obvious intracellular iron accumulation as shown by Prussian blue staining and by MRI. Further, we found that ferritin-EGFP overexpression

SUBMITTER: Jiang C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6024424 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature