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Biotechnology and Applied Biochemistry (2007) 46, (179–184) (Printed in Great Britain)
Non-invasive imaging of firefly luciferase reporter gene expression using bioluminescence imaging in human prostate cancer models
Hongwei Li*†, Jin Zhong Li†, Gregory A. Helm† and Dongfeng Pan*1
*Department of Radiology, University of Virginia, Box 801339, MR4 Bldg, Rm 1179, Lane Road, Charlottesville, VA 22908, U.S.A., and †Department of Neurosurgery, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22908, U.S.A.
Key words: adenoviral vector, firefly luciferase, human prostate cancer model, lung metastasis, non-invasive imaging, prostate-specific antigen promoter. Abbreviations used: CCD, charge-coupled-device; CCCD, cooled CCD; CMV, cytomegalovirus; pfu, plaque-forming unit; PSA, prostate-specific antigen; RLU, relative light unit; RT, reverse transcription. 1To whom correspondence should be addressed (email dongfeng_pan@yahoo.com or dp3r@virginia.edu). Monitoring the expression of therapeutic genes in targeted tissues in disease models is important to assess the effectiveness and safety of systems of gene therapy delivery. In the present study, we employed a CCD (charge-coupled-device) imaging system to monitor how a prostate-specific adenovirus vector (AdPSA-Luc) mediated the long-term, sustained expression of firefly luciferase (Luc) in living human prostate cancer mouse models. The in vivo bioluminescence imaging revealed significantly high levels of luciferase expression up to 1 month, not only in prostate tumours, but also in lungs after intratumoural injection. Systemic tail vein injection of AdPSA-Luc revealed significant luciferase expression in lungs of both human prostate cancer mouse models and naïve mice, but significantly higher in the former, while the control virus, AdCMV-Luc, containing CMV (cytomegalovirus) promoter and luciferase gene, just restricted expression in the livers. Our findings demonstrate the ability of the cooled CCD camera to sensitively and non-invasively track the location, magnitude and persistence of luciferase gene expression in human prostate cancer mouse models. Monitoring of gene therapy studies in small animals may be aided considerably with further extensions of this technique. Received 1 May 2006/10 October 2006; accepted 31 October 2006 Published as Immediate Publication 31 October 2006, DOI 10.1042/BA20060081 © 2007 Portland Press Ltd |
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