D-Luciferin Potassium Salt

Overview

Luciferin is a chemical substance found in the cells of various bioluminescent organisms. When luciferin is oxidized under the catalytic effects of luciferase and ATP, a bluish-green light is produced. Because the reaction is dependent on ATP, it allows researchers to determine the presence of energy or life. Firefly luciferin is a particularly good reporter for in vivo biophotonic imaging due to properties of its emission spectra.

D-Luciferin Potassium Salt (P/N 122796) is isolated from firefly and extensively validated in a number of biophotonic imaging applications using the IVIS® Imaging System available from Caliper Life Sciences.

Luciferin Toxicity

Luciferin is a low molecular weight organic compound that consists of a benzothiazole moiety attached to a thiazole carboxylic acid moiety. Luciferin is found in fireflies and other animals which, in the presence of ATP and the enzyme luciferase, becomes luminescent. The small size of luciferin also makes it a poor antigen and immune responses to luciferin are unlikely. Luciferin is able to pass the blood brain barrier, the blood placenta barrier and the blood testis barrier, toxicity appears low.

Frequently asked questions

How do you administer luciferin?
Mice with lux-bearing bacteria do not need luciferin to glow. In the tumor models and transgenic models, luciferin is administered intraperitoneally (concomitant with anesthesia).

How well does luciferin distribute?
Luciferin distributes quickly and easily throughout the animal.

How do the animals respond to the repeated administration of luciferin substrate?
Luciferin does not affect the animals deleteriously (no evidence of toxicological or immunological effects).

Do you need to administer luciferin substrate to the animals before imaging?
In bacteria, the entire luciferase operon is stably integrated on the chromosome. This eliminates the need for exogenous luciferin substrate in the bacterial models. The tumor models and transgenic models rely on the exogenous administration of luciferin.