同步辐射成像技术应用于肿瘤新生血管的实验初探

Preliminary study on application of synchrotron radiation imaging to tumor angiogenesis

肿瘤新生血管对肿瘤的生长、转移有重要作用,但目前传统影像技术只能分辨直径大于200μm的血管。同步辐射相衬成像技术对生物软组织如血管、肿瘤等成像有巨大优势,空间分辨率可达1μm。本研究用上海光源(SSRF)X射线成像与生物医学应用光束线站,不使用造影剂,对不同时期的裸鼠脊背皮翼4T1乳腺癌视窗模型内的肿瘤新生血管相衬成像,观察到密集、不规则、细小弯曲的肿瘤新生血管,能分辨的最小血管直径20-30μm。

Angiogenesis plays an important role in tumor growth and metastasis. However, only vessels lager than 200 μm in diameter can be observed using conventional medical image. Synchrotron radiation （SR） phase contrast imaging, with a spatial resolution being as high as 1μm, has great advantages in imaging soft tissue structure, such as blood vessels and tumors. The morphology of tumor angiogenesis at different stages in the 4T1 nude mice tumor window model was firstly studied without contrast agent using the SR phase contrast imaging at SSRF X-ray imaging and biomedical application beamline. The results showed dense, irregular and tortuous tumor angiogenesis with the smallest vessels of 20-30μm in diameter.