The UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Small Animal Optical Imaging service provides expertise and equipment that enable researchers to quickly, easily, and inexpensively answer technical questions related to in vivo events in small animal rodent models.
Optical imaging:
- uses bioluminescence or fluorescence to measure and characterize real-time molecular events in vivo to produce both quantitative and qualitative data
- measures multiple events simultaneously within the same host
- provides for short imaging times (acquisition times of 1 second to 5 minutes), and imaging of multiple animals simultaneously for more rapid screening
- can provide important pre-clinical information that can augment data from other imaging modalities (PET-CT and MRI)
The technical experts provide training for investigators using in vivo models to study cancer biology and therapy response including consultation, training, and support.
Examples of cancer-relevant uses include:
- quantitative longitudinal measurement of tumor development, metastasis, angiogenesis, and response to therapy
- trafficking of cellular and other biological therapies (e.g., immune cell, stem cell, or viral therapeutic platforms or antibodies, peptides, metabolites, etc.)
- monitoring of host immune cell responses
- distribution, quantification, and kinetic analyses of gene expression or enzymatic activity in vivo
Optical Imaging Equipment and Services
The optical imaging suite is equipped with:
- FMT2500 fluorescence tomographic imaging device (VisEn, now part of Perkin Elmer), enabling the study of up to 4 fluorescent channels with different reporters.
- Lumina XR system (Caliper Life Sciences, now part of Perkin Elmer) with bioluminescence, fluorescence and x-ray imaging capabilities
The optical imaging modality offers various reagents for imaging experiments, including a variety of luciferase or fluorescent protein-labeled tumor cell lines for in vivo modeling, as well as retroviral- and plasmid-based constructs (and protocols) to generate cell lines that stably express luciferase or fluorescent proteins.
