Imaging tumor hypoxia by near-infrared fluorescence tomography.

We have developed a novel nitroimidazole indocyanine dye conjugate for tumor-targeted hypoxia fluorescence tomography. The hypoxia probe has been evaluated in vitro using tumor cell lines and in vivo with tumor targeting in mice. The in vitro cell studies were performed to assess fluorescence labeling differences between hypoxia and normoxia conditions. When treated with the hypoxia probe, a fluorescence emission ratio of 2.5-fold was found between the cells incubated under hypoxia compared to the cells in normoxia condition. Hypoxia specificity was also confirmed by comparing the cells treated with indocyanine dye alone. In vivo tumor targeting in mice showed that the fluorescence signals measured at the tumor site were twice those at the normal site after 150 min post-injection of the hypoxia probe. On the other hand, the fluorescence signals measured after injection of indocyanine dye were the same at tumor and normal sites. In vivo fluorescence tomography images of mice injected with the hypoxia probe showed that the probe remained for more than 5 to 7 h in the tumors, however, the images of mice injected with indocyanine only dye confirmed that the unbound dye washed out in less than 3 h. These findings are supported with fluorescence images of histological sections of tumor samples using a Li-COR scanner and immunohistochemistry technique for tumor hypoxia.