Bioluminescence imaging (BLI) of luciferase reporters provides a cost-effective and sensitive means to image biological processes. However, transport of luciferase substrates across the cell membrane does affect BLI-readout-intensity from intact living cells.
To investigate the effect of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters on BLI readout, we generated Click Beetle-(cLuc), Firefly-(fLuc), Renilla-(rLuc), and Gaussia-(gLuc) luciferase HEK-293 reporter cells that overexpressed different ABC-transporters (ABCB1, ABCC1 and ABCG2). In vitro studies showed a significant BLI intensity decrease in intact-cells compared to cell-lysates, when ABCG2 was overexpressed in HEK-293/cLuc, fLuc, and rLuc cells. Selective ABC-transporter inhibitors were also applied. Inhibition of ABCG2 activity increased the BLI intensity >2-fold in HEK-293/cLuc, fLuc and rLuc cells; inhibition of ABCB1 elevated the BLI intensity 2-fold only in HEK-293/rLuc cells. BLI of xenografts derived from HEK-293/ABC-transporter/luciferase-reporter cells confirmed the results of inhibitor treatment in vivo.
These findings demonstrate that coelenterazine-based rLuc-BLI intensity can be modulated by ABCB1 and ABCG2. ABCG2 modulates D-luciferin-based BLI in a luciferase-type-independent manner. Little ABC-transporter effect on gLuc-BLI intensity is observed since a large fraction of gLuc is secreted. The expression level of ABC-transporters is one key factor affecting BLI intensity, and this may be particularly important in luciferase-based applications in stem cell research.