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In gene therapy with an inhalant, therapeutic outcome depends on both the pulmonary delivery of the agent and the gene expression properties in the lung. The aim of the present study was to visualize and evaluate both the pulmonary delivery and the gene expression properties of a dry powder at once in mice. We used indocyanine green (ICG) as a fluorescent label, the plasmid DNA pCMV-Luc encoding the firefly luciferase as a reporter, chitosan as a non-viral vector and lactose as a carrier of the dry powder prepared by a supercritical carbon dioxide process. The pulmonary delivery of the dry powder and the gene expression in the lung were evaluated by detection of fluorescence of ICG and the detection of luciferase activity, respectively, by using a real-time in vivo imaging system (IVIS^® imaging system, Xenogen Corporation). The fluorescence and bioluminescence were more specifically detected by …