What advantages does fluorescence have over bioluminescence?
In vivo fluorescence measurements have several advantages over in vivo bioluminescence measurements. First, it is possible to do many more types of experiments with fluorescence. Every bioluminescence experiment has an analogous fluorescence experiment (using fluorescent proteins), butthe converse is not necessarily true. Second, it is difficult to validate in vivo bioluminescence results with ex vivo imaging, as bioluminescence is only created in living cells. Fluorescent proteins, on the other hand, can be easily imaged ex vivo to give high-resolution microscopic images of what was generating the in vivo signals (made more powerful still with the combination of Maestro and Nuance in order to maintain continuity of reported results). Lastly, the use of ‘activatable’ fluorescent reagents, which can turn on in the presence of particular enzymes or conditions, has no analog in bioluminescence. Fluorescence is a more broadly based, versatile imaging modality.
