Noninvasive imaging in vivo with fluorescent proteins from centimeters to micrometers

Whole-body imaging with fluorescent proteins has been shown to be a powerful technology with many applications in small animals. Our laboratory pioneered in vivo imaging with fluorescent proteins (1) including noninvasive whole-body imaging (2). Whole-body imaging with fluorescent proteins depends in large part on the brightness of the protein. Brighter, red-shifted proteins can make whole-body imaging more sensitive due to reduced absorption by tissues and less scatter. Non-invasive imaging with fluorescent proteins has been shown to be able to quantitatively track tumor growth and metastasis, gene expression, anglogenesis, and bacterial infection (3) even at subcellular resolution depending on the position of the cells in the animal. Interference by skin autofluorescence is kept to a minimum with the use of proper filters. To noninvasively image cancer cell/stromal cell interaction in the tumor microenvironment and drug response at the cellular level in live animals in real time, we developed a new imageable three-color animal model. The model consists of green fluorescent protein (GFP)-expressing mice transplanted with dual-color cancer cells labeled with GFP in the nucleus and red fluorescent protein (RFP) in the cytoplasm. Various in vivo phenomena of tumor-host interaction and cellular dynamics were imaged, including mitotic and apoptotic tumor cells, stromal cells interacting with the tumor cells, tumor vasculature, and tumor blood flow as well as drug response. This imageable technology should lead to many new insights of in vivo cancer cell biology.