Figure 1

Damaged Cox2 ^FLuc/+ DMD ^+/+ muscle exhibits a bioluminescent signal that is detectable by optical imaging. Optical imaging was carried out on mice injured by cardiotoxin to determine whether the bioluminescent signal induced by muscle damage was detectable. Acute injury was induced by cardiotoxin injection into the lower leg muscles of Cox2 ^FLuc/+ DMD ^+/+ mice while the opposing leg muscles were not injected. Mice were imaged 48 h post cardiotoxin injection. (A) In vivo bioluminescent signal is shown in pseudo color for one representative mouse. Bioluminescence was observed from the cardiotoxin-injured leg but not from the uninjected leg. Red box in the left panel is shown in higher magnification on the right side of the figure. (B) After the first imaging session, the mice were injected again with D-luciferin and the gastrocnemius and hamstring muscles from the left and right legs were dissected, placed in a petri dish, and re-imaged ex vivo. Bioluminescence is shown, in pseudo color, for two of the three mice. Only muscle sections from the cardiotoxin-injected legs produced a bioluminescent signal detected by optical imaging. (C) Western blot of luciferase detected in whole muscle extracts from uninjected (C) and injected (I) muscles. (Luc) is the luciferase control (recombinant protein) run on the same gel. The actin band from the ponceau red stained nitrocellulose membrane was used as a loading control.