Abstract. We present a method for tissue fluorescence quantification in situ using a handheld fiber optic probe that measures both the fluorescence and diffuse reflectance spectra. A simplified method to decouple the fluorescence spectrum from distorting effects of the tissue optical absorption and scattering is developed, with the objective of accurately quantifying the fluorescence in absolute units. The primary motivation is measurement of 5-aminolevulinic acid-induced protoporphyrin IX (ALA-PpIX) concentration in tissue during fluorescence-guided resection of malignant brain tumors. This technique is validated in phantoms and ex vivo mouse tissues, and tested in vivo in a rabbit brain tumor model using ALA-PpIX fluorescence contrast. C 2010 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

LLLT exhibit different effects in induced inflammatory process according to different wavelengths and wave mode. Upregulation of iNOS gene following 905 nm pulsed wave suggests a different mechanism in activating the inflammatory pathway response when compared to the continuous wave.

Firefly luciferase catalyzes the emission of light from luciferin in the presence of oxygen and adenosine triphosphate. This bioluminescence is commonly employed in imaging mode to monitor tumor growth and treatment responses in vivo. A potential concern is that, since solid tumors are often hypoxic, either constitutively and/or as a result of treatment, the oxygen available for the bioluminescence reaction could be reduced to limiting levels, leading to underestimation of the actual number of luciferase-labeled cells during in vivo experiments. We present studies of the oxygen dependence of bioluminescence in vitro in rat 9 L gliosarcoma cells tagged with the firefly luciferase gene (9L(luc)). We demonstrate that the bioluminescence signal decreases at pO(2)