Bioluminescence tomography

Abstract

Among all of the modalities in molecular imaging, because of the excellent performance and cost performance, optical molecular imaging has attracted much attention over the last few years. Fluorescence and bioluminescence imaging are now commonly used for optical molecular imaging. In contrast with fluorescence imaging, there is no inherent tissue autofluorescence generated by external illumination in bioluminescence imaging, which makes it extremely sensitive. Since plane bioluminescence imaging cannot provide information about bioluminescent source distribution, bioluminescence tomography (BLT) with quantitative and localized analysis of bioluminescent source distribution has become a research hotspot. Therefore, bioluminescence tomography (BLT) has become an important instrument for revealing molecular and cellular signatures that are critically important for numerous biomedical studies. In this chapter, we focus exclusively on bioluminescence tomography.