A synthetic luciferin improves bioluminescence imaging in live mice.

Evans, Melanie S; Chaurette, Joanna P; Adams, Spencer T; Reddy, Gadarla R; Paley, Miranda A; Aronin, Neil; Prescher, Jennifer A; Miller, Stephen C · Nat Methods · 2014

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Firefly luciferase is the most widely used optical reporter for noninvasive bioluminescence imaging (BLI) in rodents. BLI relies on the ability of the injected luciferase substrate D-luciferin to access luciferase-expressing cells and tissues within the animal. Here we show that injection of mice with a synthetic luciferin, CycLuc1, improves BLI with existing luciferase reporters and enables imaging in the brain that could not be achieved with D-luciferin.

Medical subject headings