Blueschke Gert, Hanna Gabi, Fontanella Andrew N, Palmer Gregory M, Boico Alina, Min Hooney, Dewhirst Mark W, Irwin David C, Zhao Yulin, Schroeder Thies
Division of Plastic, Maxillofacial, and Oral Surgery, Duke University Medical Center.
Department of Radiation Oncology, Duke University Medical Center.
J Vis Exp. 2014 Nov 30(93):e51630. doi: 10.3791/51630.
Because the lung is a major target organ of metastatic disease, animal models to study the physiology of pulmonary metastases are of great importance. However, very few methods exist to date to investigate lung metastases in a dynamic fashion at the microcirculatory level, due to the difficulty to access the lung with a microscope. Here, an intravital microscopy method is presented to functionally image and quantify the microcirculation of superficial pulmonary metastases in rats, using a closed-chest pulmonary window and automated analysis of blood flow velocity and direction. The utility of this method is demonstrated to measure increases in blood flow velocity in response to pharmacological intervention, and to image the well-known tortuous vasculature of solid tumors. This is the first demonstration of intravital microscopy on pulmonary metastases in a closed-chest model. Because of its minimized invasiveness, as well as due to its relative ease and practicality, this technology has the potential to experience widespread use in laboratories that specialize on pulmonary tumor research.
由于肺是转移性疾病的主要靶器官，因此用于研究肺转移生理学的动物模型非常重要。然而，由于难以用显微镜观察肺，迄今为止，几乎没有方法能够在微循环水平动态研究肺转移。在此，我们提出一种活体显微镜方法，利用封闭胸腔肺窗以及对血流速度和方向的自动分析，对大鼠浅表肺转移的微循环进行功能成像和定量分析。该方法的实用性体现在能够测量药物干预后血流速度的增加，并对实体瘤中众所周知的迂曲脉管系统进行成像。这是在封闭胸腔模型中对肺转移进行活体显微镜观察的首次证明。由于其微创性以及相对简便和实用性，该技术有可能在专门从事肺肿瘤研究的实验室中得到广泛应用。
