Molecular Imaging of Tumor Progression and Angiogenesis by Dual Bioluminescence.

Angiogenesis is a prerequisite for tumor growth and invasion, and anti-angiogenesis has become a highlight in tumor treatment research. However, so far, there is no reliable solution for how to simultaneously visualize the relationship between tumor progression and angiogenesis. Bioluminescence imaging (BLI) has been broadly utilized and is a very promising non-invasive imaging technique with the advantages of low cost, high sensitivity, and robust specificity. In this chapter, we describe a dual bioluminescence imaging BLI protocol for tumor progression and angiogenesis through implanting murine breast cancer cell line 4T1 which stably expressing Renilla luciferase (RLuc) into the transgenic mice with angiogenesis-induced firefly luciferase (FLuc) expression. This modality enables us to synchronously monitor the tumor progression and angiogenesis in the same mouse, which has broad applicability in oncology studies.