Lin Fanglue, Shelton Sarah E, Espíndola David, Rojas Juan D, Pinton Gianmarco, Dayton Paul A
Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
Theranostics. 2017 Jan 1;7(1):196-204. doi: 10.7150/thno.16899. eCollection 2017.
Angiogenesis has been known as a hallmark of solid tumor cancers for decades, yet ultrasound has been limited in its ability to detect the microvascular changes associated with malignancy. Here, we demonstrate the potential of 'ultrasound localization microscopy' applied volumetrically in combination with quantitative analysis of microvascular morphology, as an approach to overcome this limitation. This pilot study demonstrates our ability to image complex microvascular patterns associated with tumor angiogenesis in-vivo at a resolution of tens of microns - substantially better than the diffraction limit of traditional clinical ultrasound, yet using an 8 MHz clinical ultrasound probe. Furthermore, it is observed that data from healthy and tumor-bearing tissue exhibit significant differences in microvascular pattern and density. Results suggests that with continued development of these novel technologies, ultrasound has the potential to detect biomarkers of cancer based on the microvascular 'fingerprint' of malignant angiogenesis rather than through imaging of blood flow dynamics or the tumor mass itself.
几十年来，血管生成一直被视为实体肿瘤癌症的一个标志，然而超声在检测与恶性肿瘤相关的微血管变化方面能力有限。在此，我们展示了“超声定位显微镜”在体积上的应用潜力，并结合微血管形态的定量分析，以此作为克服这一局限性的方法。这项初步研究证明了我们能够以数十微米的分辨率在体内对与肿瘤血管生成相关的复杂微血管模式进行成像——这比传统临床超声的衍射极限要好得多，而且使用的是8兆赫的临床超声探头。此外，观察到来自健康组织和肿瘤组织的数据在微血管模式和密度上存在显著差异。结果表明，随着这些新技术的不断发展，超声有潜力基于恶性血管生成的微血管“指纹”而非通过血流动力学成像或肿瘤肿块本身来检测癌症生物标志物。
