Quantitative Ex-Vivo Micro-Computed Tomographic Imaging of Blood Vessels and Necrotic Regions within Tumors
Quantitative Ex-Vivo Micro-Computed Tomographic Imaging of Blood Vessels and Necrotic Regions within Tumors
复制标题
DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0041685
复制
发表时间：
2012-07-25
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Jirik, Frank R.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Downey, Charlene M.;Singla, Arvind K.;Jirik, Frank R.
可视化和定量肿瘤微血管的技术不仅对于研究血管生成过程而且对于监测抗血管生成治疗的效果是必不可少的。鉴于从传统的2-D组织学分析中可以收集到的信息相对有限，人们对能够对脉管系统进行3-D评估的方法产生了相当大的兴趣。为此，我们采用聚合血管内造影剂（Microfil）和微型计算机断层扫描（micro-CT）结合最大球体直接3D分析方法来可视化和量化离体血管结构特征，并定义低灌注区域肿瘤内可能指示坏死。采用这些技术，我们量化了血管破坏剂对肿瘤血管系统的影响。本文所述的用于量化整个肿瘤血管分布的方法代表了肿瘤血管生成的3-D研究和新治疗剂的评价的显著进步，并且还将在血管结构和坏死的量化是重要结果参数的其他领域中找到潜在应用。
Techniques for visualizing and quantifying the microvasculature of tumors are essential not only for studying angiogenic processes but also for monitoring the effects of anti-angiogenic treatments. Given the relatively limited information that can be gleaned from conventional 2-D histological analyses, there has been considerable interest in methods that enable the 3-D assessment of the vasculature. To this end, we employed a polymerizing intravascular contrast medium (Microfil) and micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) in combination with a maximal spheres direct 3-D analysis method to visualize and quantify ex-vivo vessel structural features, and to define regions of hypoperfusion within tumors that would be indicative of necrosis. Employing these techniques we quantified the effects of a vascular disrupting agent on the tumor vasculature. The methods described herein for quantifying whole tumor vascularity represent a significant advance in the 3-D study of tumor angiogenesis and evaluation of novel therapeutics, and will also find potential application in other fields where quantification of blood vessel structure and necrosis are important outcome parameters.