McKay Orthopaedic Research Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Ultrasound Med Biol. 2019 Jul;45(7):1841-1849. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2019.03.002. Epub 2019 Apr 30.
While vascular ingrowth is necessary for tendon healing, hypervascularization following tendon injury is not always believed to be beneficial, and there is now evidence showing beneficial results of anti-angiogenic treatments in the context of tendon healing. However, the dose-dependency of anti-angiogenic-altered vascular response, as well as methods for evaluating these changes in vivo, has not been fully investigated. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate if in vivo ultrasound imaging can detect dose-dependent, anti-angiogenic treatment-induced changes in vascularity in rat Achilles tendon after injury. Color Doppler ultrasound revealed an increase in vascularity in a low-dosage group, while photoacoustic imaging demonstrated a decrease in vascularity in mid- and high-dosage groups. Histologic staining supported the decrease in vascularity observed in the mid-dosage group. This study demonstrates dose-dependent vascular alterations from the delivery of an anti-angiogenic factor after tendon injury that can be detected through ultrasound imaging methods.
虽然血管生成对于肌腱愈合是必要的，但肌腱损伤后的过度血管化并不总是被认为是有益的，现在有证据表明在肌腱愈合的背景下，抗血管生成治疗有有益的效果。然而，抗血管生成改变的血管反应的剂量依赖性以及体内评估这些变化的方法尚未得到充分研究。因此，本研究旨在评估体内超声成像是否可以检测到损伤后大鼠跟腱中抗血管生成治疗引起的、剂量依赖性的血管生成变化。彩色多谱勒超声显示低剂量组的血管生成增加，而光声成像显示中、高剂量组的血管生成减少。组织学染色支持中剂量组观察到的血管减少。本研究表明，在肌腱损伤后给予抗血管生成因子会导致剂量依赖性的血管改变，这些改变可以通过超声成像方法检测到。
