title: Whole-body imaging of infection using fluorescence.
abstract: Optical imaging is emerging as a powerful tool to study physiological, neurological, oncological, cell biological, molecular, developmental, immunological, and infectious processes. This unit describes the use of fluorescent reporters for biological organisms, components, or events. We describe the application of fluorescence imaging to examination of infectious processes, in particular subcutaneous and pulmonary bacterial infections, but the same approaches are applicable to nearly any infectious route. The strategies described use mycobacterial infections as an example, but nearly identical systems can be used for Pseudomonas, Legionella, Salmonella, Escherichia, Borrelia, and Staphylococus, suggesting that the approaches are generally applicable to nearly any infectious agent. Two strategies for fluorescence imaging are described: the first method uses reporter enzyme fluorescence (REF), and the second uses fluorescent proteins for fluorescence imaging. Methods are described in detail to facilitate successful application of these emerging technologies to nearly any experimental system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbial and Molecular Pathogenesis, Texas A&M Health Sciences Center, College Station, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.forename: Ali R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Akin
authors.forename: Kevin P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Francis
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Tamara L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Troy
authors.forename: Hexin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Jianghong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: Suat L G
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Cirillo
authors.forename: Jeffrey D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Cirillo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000472:pathogenicity; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000473:pathology*; D001996:Bronchopneumonia / Q000473:pathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005453:Fluorescence; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000378:metabolism; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D017192:Skin Diseases, Bacterial / Q000473:pathology; D018461:Soft Tissue Infections / Q000473:pathology; D051598:Whole Body Imaging / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes