A bioluminescence reporter mouse strain for in vivo imaging of CD8⁺ T cell localization and function

CD8⁺ T cells play a critical role during adaptive immune response, which often change locations and expand or contract in numbers under different states. In the past, many attempts to develop CD8⁺T cells that express luciferase in vivo have involved the use of viral transduction, which has drawbacks of hardly tracked via detection of luciferase signal in untouched natural states. Here, we generate a transgenic mouse model via CRISPR-mediated genome editing, C57BL/6-CD8a^{em(IRES-AkaLuci-2A-EGFP)} knock-in mice(CD8a-Aka mice), as a novel tool for non-invasive imaging of CD8⁺ T cells, which expressed a highly sensitive luciferase-Akaluciferase. Our study offers a convenient and robust tool for understanding fundamental CD8⁺ T cell biology in experimental applications and preclinical translational studies.