ABSTRACT
One of the most critical issues for ensuring success of understanding diseases and developing new therapies is the development of noninvasive high-resolution in vivo imaging technologies. Optical imaging methods have been stimulated by the development of genetically engineered fluorescent and bioluminescent markers and new fluorescent probes. Imaging gene expression of targeted viral vectors in vivo is critical to assess their efficacy. Fluorescence mediated tomography has evolved as a tomographical method to overcome many of the limitations of planar imaging and yield a robust and quantitative modality for fluorescent reporters in vivo. Bioluminescence imaging has emerged as a useful and complementary experimental imaging technique for small animals. Imaging models follow tumor cells immediately after implantation and are well suited for quantitative evaluation of therapeutic efficacy. IVM is a powerful optical imaging technique that allows continuous noninvasive monitoring of molecular and cellular processes in intact living tissue with 1 to 10 µm resolution.
