In vivo quantitative bioluminescence tomography using heterogeneous and homogeneous mouse models

Bioluminescence tomography (BLT) is a new optical molecular imaging modality, which can monitor both physiological and pathological processes by using bioluminescent light-emitting probes in small living animal. Especially, this technology possesses great potential in drug development, early detection, and therapy monitoring in preclinical settings. In the present study, we developed a dual modality BLT prototype system with Micro-computed tomography (MicroCT) registration approach, and improved the quantitative reconstruction algorithm based on adaptive hp finite element method (hp-FEM). Detailed comparisons of source reconstruction between the heterogeneous and homogeneous mouse models were performed. The models include mice with implanted luminescence source and tumor-bearing mice with firefly luciferase report gene. Our data suggest that the reconstruction based on heterogeneous mouse model is more accurate in localization and quantification than the homogeneous mouse model with appropriate optical parameters and that BLT allows super-early tumor detection in vivo based on tomographic reconstruction of heterogeneous mouse model signal.