Recent Advances in Cerenkov Luminescence and Tomography Imaging

Molecular imaging can provide qualitative or quantitative physiological and pathological knowledge at the cellular and molecular levels for biomedical research, which has experienced a remarkable growth in recent years. Among molecular imaging techniques, optical molecular imaging has attracted considerable attention in view of its excellent performance and high cost-effectiveness. However, heretofore the experimental objects of optical imaging technique are mainly small animals like rats and mice, and optical imaging can hardly be used for clinical research not only because of the limited tissue penetration, but also due to the scarcity of appropriate imaging probes. As a newly emerging and very promising imaging modality, Cerenkov luminescence employs light signals emitting from radionuclides used in nuclear imaging based on Cerenkov radiation, which can provide more potential optical imaging probes for clinical application and facilitate the realization of multimodality imaging. In this paper, the fundamentals of Cerenkov luminescence are first introduced, and then Cerenkov luminescence imaging and tomography as well as the corresponding biomedical applications are represented. Finally, limitations of Cerenkov luminescence and the discussion of this contribution are covered.