Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- Part I Types of Imaging Reporter Genes
- 1 Fluorescent Reporter Proteins
- 2 Revealing Biomolecular Mechanisms Through In Vivo Bioluminescence Imaging
- 3 Reporter Gene Imaging with PET/SPECT
- 4 Noninvasive Imaging of Gene Expression with Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
- Part II Enhancing Reporter Gene Imaging Techniques
- Part III Imaging Instrumentations
- Part IV Current Applications of Imaging Reporter Genes
- Index
- References
3 - Reporter Gene Imaging with PET/SPECT
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- Part I Types of Imaging Reporter Genes
- 1 Fluorescent Reporter Proteins
- 2 Revealing Biomolecular Mechanisms Through In Vivo Bioluminescence Imaging
- 3 Reporter Gene Imaging with PET/SPECT
- 4 Noninvasive Imaging of Gene Expression with Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
- Part II Enhancing Reporter Gene Imaging Techniques
- Part III Imaging Instrumentations
- Part IV Current Applications of Imaging Reporter Genes
- Index
- References
Summary
Molecular imaging (MI) allows in vivo visualization of normal and abnormal cellular processes at the molecular and genomic levels, rather than at the anatomical level. MI is a relatively new biomedical discipline that enables cellular and subcellular biologic processes within living subjects to be visualized, characterized, and quantified. MI combines molecular biology and medical imaging and is increasingly attracting research attention in the molecular cell biology, chemistry, genetics, biomedical physics, engineering, and medical fields. It can be used to study genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, various intracellular processes, and cell–cell interactions. A major focus of MI is genetic imaging, that is, “molecular–genetic imaging,” and imaging reporter genes are set to play a leading role in molecular–genetic imaging.
Conventionally, gene expression levels can be determined by assaying reporter gene expression. To achieve this, a recombinant plasmid is constructed that expresses simultaneously a gene of interest and a reporter gene in a correlated manner, then it is transfected into target cells. When transcription and translation of the gene of interest and reporter gene occur simultaneously, by assaying reporter protein activity, gene expression can be indirectly evaluated in transfected cells. Conventional reporter genes include β-galactosidase, alkaline phosphatase, luciferases, and green fluorescent protein, but the conventional techniques of assaying them often required tissue sampling. More recent techniques with imaging reporter genes allow noninvasive and repetitive determination of transgene expression studies in living animals.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Molecular Imaging with Reporter Genes , pp. 70 - 87Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
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