After washing three times with ELISA wash buffer: 1XPBS/ 0.1% Tween (Thermo MAPK13-IN-1 Fisher Scientific Inc), serum samples obtained by orbital bleeding from mice with tumors expressing luc2 were diluted 1:100 in 1XPBS/1% BSA, and incubated for an hour. 8?weeks after injection (p? ?0.01), whereas a significant increase in weight above baseline was not observed until day 56 (p? ?0.0001). Expression of luc2 in ID8 cells did not alter the cellular immune microenvironment of the tumor. FOXP3+ T cells were more likely to be detected in the intraepithelial compartment and CD4+ T cells in the stroma as compared to CD3+ T cells, which were found equally in stroma and intraepithelial compartments. Conclusions Use of an intraperitoneal tumor expressing a codon-optimized firefly luciferase in an immunocompetent mouse model allows tumor quantitation in vivo and detection of microscopic tumor burdens. Expression of this foreign protein does not significantly effect tumor engraftment or the immune microenvironment of the ID8 cells in vivo and may allow novel immunotherapies to be assessed in a murine model for their translational potential to ovarian cancers in remission or minimal disease after primary cytoreductive surgery or chemotherapy. Methods Mouse ovarian surface epithelial cells from C57BL6 mice transformed after serial passage in vitro were transduced with a lentiviral vector expressing a codon optimized firefly luciferase (luc2). Cell lines MAPK13-IN-1 were selected and luc2 expression functionally confirmed in vitro. Cell lines were intraperitoneally (IP) implanted in albino C57BL/6/BrdCrHsd-Tyrc mice and albino B6(Cg)-Tyrc-2?J/J mice for serial imaging. D-luciferin substrate was injected IP and tumors Col13a1 were serially imaged in vivo using a Xenogen IVIS. Tumor take, weights, and luminescent intensities were measured. Immunohistochemistry was performed on tumors and assessed for immune infiltrates in stromal and intraepithelial compartments. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40425-015-0060-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. and have represented a syngeneic and immunocompetent mouse model [24]. The intraperitoneal location of these more recent approaches to modeling ovarian cancer in mice raises the same issues seen human ovarian cancer: tumor quantitation and detection of low volume disease. Murine ovarian tumors have been previously imaged using luciferase [25-27]. We sought to evaluate this approach when it is enhanced to use a codon-optimized protein and mutant mouse strains MAPK13-IN-1 that permit improved transmission of light from intraperitoneal tumors. Use of these modifications has been reported to allow detection to the level of 10 cells in albino mice [28]. It is not known whether the optimized manifestation of a xeno-antigen or use of mutant C57BL6 mice will alter tumor engraftment of this mouse model or how quantitation of these tumors will track with external actions. It is also unknown whether the manifestation of xeno-antigen will alter the intraperitoneal tumor microenvironment potentially eliciting a shift from immunosuppressive to inflammatory. Materials and Methods Lentiviral illness of MAPK13-IN-1 ID8 with luciferase vector and cell collection selection ID8 cells, ovarian surface epithelial cells derived from the C57B6 mice (from K. Roby, University MAPK13-IN-1 or college of Kansas) [24], were plated at 3×105 cells per well (6-well plate; Corning, Inc.) and incubated over night at 37C/5% CO2. Press consisted of Dulbeccos Changes of Eagles Medium w/L-glutamine (DMEM; Corning Inc.), 4% fetal bovine serum (FBS; Gemini), 0.09?mg/ml penicillin-streptomycin (Corning, Inc.), and 1 insulin/transferrin/selenium (ITS; Gibco). Cells were infected with 2?mL/well pLentiIII-Luc2 viral vector supernatant (Applied Biological Materials Inc.) in the presence of 8?g/ml polybrene (EMD Millipore Corporation). After over night incubation at 37C/5% CO2, the viral supernatant and press with polybrene were removed and the plate was washed with PBS prior to the addition of warmed press. Cells were cultured in growth press for 72?hours and then placed under drug selection with 1?g/mL puromycin, added daily (Invitrogen). Colonies were selected using 3?mm cloning disks soaked in 0.25% trypsin-EDTA (Invitrogen) and grown to confluence in 6 well plates. Cells were then trypsinized, spun, and suspended to a concentration of 5104 cells/100?l. One hundred l of cells were added per well inside a white 96-well plate (EMD Millipore Corporation) and equivalent volume of 3000?g/ml d-luciferin was added immediately before reading. Lines were selected centered maximal relative light devices after addition of substrate like a measure of practical luciferase manifestation (Additional file 1:.