Texas A&M College of Medicine

3 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Immunology and Infection

Using Luciferase to Image Bacterial Infections in Mice

Mi Hee Chang¹, Suat L.G. Cirillo¹, Jeffrey D. Cirillo¹

¹Microbial & Molecular Pathogenesis, Texas A&M Health Science Center

Methods for bioluminescence imaging of bacterial infections in living animals are decribed. Pathogens are modified to express luciferase allowing optical whole body imaging of infections in live animals. Animal models can be infected with luciferase expressing pathogens and the resulting course of disease visualized in real-time by bioluminescence imaging.

Immunology and Infection

Imaging Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Mice with Reporter Enzyme Fluorescence

Riti Sharan^*1, Hee-Jeong Yang^*2, Preeti Sule¹, Jeffrey D. Cirillo¹

¹Department of Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunology, Texas A&M Health Science Center, ²Tuberculosis Research Section, Laboratory of Clinical Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health

We describe the optical imaging of mice infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) using reporter enzyme fluorescence (REF). This protocol facilitates the sensitive and specific detection of M. tuberculosis in pre-clinical animal models for pathogenesis, therapeutics and vaccine research.

Bioengineering

Fabrication and Characterization of Optical Tissue Phantoms Containing Macrostructure

Madeleine S. Durkee¹, Landon D. Nash¹, Fatemeh Nooshabadi¹, Jeffrey D. Cirillo², Duncan J. Maitland¹, Kristen C. Maitland¹

¹Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, ²Deparment of Molecular Pathogenesis and Immunology, Texas A&M College of Medicine

Optical tissue phantoms are essential tools for calibration and characterization of optical imaging systems and validation of theoretical models. This article details a method for phantom fabrication that includes replication of tissue optical properties and three-dimensional tissue structure.