Abstract #0824

Hypoxic Environments and the Extracellular Matrix: MRI and Second Harmonic Generation Microscopy Studies

Samata m. Kakkad¹, Meiyappan Solaiyappan¹, Kristine Glunde¹, Brian ORourke², Arvind Pathak¹, Venu Raman¹, Marie-France Penet¹, Zaver M. Bhujwalla¹

¹JHU ICMIC Program, The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; ²Institute of Molecular Cardiobiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

The tumor microenvironment plays an important role in several of the phenotypic traits of cancer. Hypoxia, in particular, leads to drug resistance, radiation resistance, and the selection of a more aggressive phenotype. The relationship between hypoxia, and the transport of macromolecules through the interstitial matrix in vivo is largely unexplored. The purpose of these studies was to determine if hypoxia alters the interstitial fluid transport of macromolecules by altering collagen fiber patterns.