Nina
Kristine Reitan1, Marte Thuen2, Pl Erik Goa3
1Department of Physics, NTNU,
Trondheim, Norway; 2Department of Circulation and Medical Imaging,
NTNU, Trondheim, Norway; 3Department of Radiology, St. Olavs
Hospital, Trondheim, Norway
By
using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and MRI we studied
microvascular architecture and permeability in tumors growing in dorsal
window chambers in mice. 40 kDa dextran and Gadomer was used as molecular
tracers for dynamic CLSM and DCE-MRI, respectively. Correlation was found between
permeability measured by the two techniques and permeability further depended
on structural parameters, like fractal dimension and vascular density. This
study demonstrates that the dorsal window tumor model gives an opportunity to
use CLSM and MRI as supplementary techniques and that CLSM provides insight
into the spatial heterogeneous microenvironment on a microscopic level that
is not accessible with MRI.