Chemiluminescence and Bioluminescence Analysis: Fundamentals and Biomedical Applications

I. INTRODUCTION A. Current Status Analytical methods based on chemiluminescence (CL) and bioluminescence (BL) are not widely used in clinical laboratories at present. However, they are receiving close attention as possible methods in the future. Interest is particularly focused on four systems: the firefly reaction which is widely used to determine adenosine triphosphate (ATP), bacterial BL for measuring the reduced form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH), the luminol reaction, and chemiluminescence accompanying phagocytosis. Together these reactions offer a wide range of analytical possibilities. They can be coupled to other analyses via enzymes that generate or consume ATP, NADH, or hydrogen peroxide. In addition, they can be used for immunological assays by labeling antigen or antibody with one of the reactants required for light production. Several other reactions also offer possible clinical application. Examples include peroxyoxalate CL for peroxide analysis and aequorin BL for measuring free calcium. Once CL and BL methods become established in the clinical laboratory, these other reactions are more likely to gain wide-spread acceptance.