Imaging Services for Hyperpermeable Vessels

Relying on the technology platform of the tumor microenvironment center, Alfa Cytology provides a full range of services of imaging of highly permeable vessels in the tumor microenvironment (TME) to help scientific researchers successfully achieve their research goals.

Introduction

Tumor vasculature is the blood vessels that are made to form when the tumor grows to 1mm³ (secreting a large amount of VEGF that exerts induction). These vessels are peculiarly spiral and irregular, different from normal human vessels, such as incomplete or missing endothelial cells, interrupted or missing basement membrane, uneven distribution of vessels, increased capillary spacing, short-circuiting of arterioles, increased interstitial fluid, and increased vascular viscosity.

Vascular permeability refers to the ability of various substances to pass through the blood vessels. Vascular permeability is regulated by a variety of factors, such as plasma albumin levels, inflammatory transmitters, platelet activating factor, protein kinase G, endothelial cell adhesion molecules, intercellular adhesion molecules, nitric oxide, shock waves, oxygen partial pressure and oxygen saturation, thrombin and oxidants.

Fig. 1 Schematic illustration of VEGF-B-induced tumor vessel remodeling and metastasis. (Yang X, et al., 2015)

Services

Alfa Cytology provides imaging services designed to help clients resolve issues related to highly permeable vessels in the tumor microenvironment. Our imaging services include, but are not limited to:

• Photoacoustic microscopic imaging service

Using a high-resolution (micrometer scale) photoacoustic microscopic imaging system with micron-level resolution, continuous label-free imaging monitoring of the growth of early tumour vessels and the process of tumour response to anti-vascular therapeutic agents can be performed. This is combined with a 3D Hessian matrix-based vessel extraction algorithm to improve the accuracy of tumour vessel extraction and to quantify changes in morphological information such as diameter, density and curvature of tumour vessels.

• Tumour angiography service

The main vascular imaging methods include digital subtraction angiography (DSA), CT angiography (CTA) and MR angiography (MRA). DSA angiography is one of the most important imaging methods for the diagnosis of tumours and is currently the routine method for clinical interventional imaging and treatment of tumours. As the morphology and physiological functions of tumour vessels are different from those of normal vessels, the angiogram image can directly show capillaries and vascular endings and other microscopic structures, and the image is intuitive and reliable.

• CT imaging service

As the proliferation status of tumour neovascularisation is positively correlated with the enhancement of the tumour during enhancement scanning, the enhancement value of enhanced CT can indirectly reflect the blood supply status of the tumour tissue to a certain extent.

• MRI imaging service

ASL, BOLD functional imaging, DW, MR and MR perfusion imaging are the most commonly used methods to evaluate tumour angiogenesis, and ASL uses protons in arterial blood as an endogenous contrast agent to reflect local blood flow information by detecting changes in signal intensity of labelled protons flowing through the tissue of interest.

• Ultrasonographic imaging service

Ultrasonography is a technique that introduces a microbubble ultrasound contrast agent into the tumour tissue for localised imaging. Colour energy Doppler ultrasound is a new technique for displaying blood flow imaging in energy mode, which can compensate for the display of blood flow in colour Doppler imaging. The mean density of tumour vessels displayed by colour energy Doppler ultrasound is positively correlated with MVD and can reflect the state of tumour angiogenesis.

• Molecular imaging service

This method uses biocompatible specificity by using polymer-specific target molecular probes modified with radioactive, magnetic, microbubble liposomes or optically active substances to bind to specific target molecules generated during the disease process, which are then visualised using the appropriate imaging tools. Different molecular imaging methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. Various signalling molecules and their signal transduction pathways during angiogenesis can be targeted for molecular imaging monitoring.

Note: Our services list is constantly being updated and improved, please contact us by email for more up-to-date and relevant information.

Alfa Cytology offers a wide choice of vascular imaging techniques to help you study vascular hyperpermeability in tumour metastasis and drug delivery. Multiple imaging has great potential for application in the study of the mechanisms of tumours and other diseases characterised by vascular changes in the pathology.

Applications

• High permeability of tumor neovascularization facilitates cancer cell metastasis. High permeability vascular imaging can help to study the spread and metastasis of cancer cells in more detail.
• In therapeutic aspects: the gap of blood vessel wall cells in tumor tissues is larger compared with that of normal tissues, and large molecule-like substances have high permeability and retention. Through the interstices of tumor blood vessel cells, they are retained in tumor cell tissues, so that large molecule anticancer drugs have passive targeting effects and can better exert their drug effects. High permeability angiography can help to study the possibility of drug penetration and drug resistance etc. more carefully.

Advantages

• Our platform equipment is advanced, with a number of world and domestic leading large / high-end instruments and equipment, and a number of world-leading technologies independently developed.
• We have a high-end technical team, who have been deeply involved in imaging technology for many years, with comprehensive knowledge, skills and rich experience, and strictly control the quality of data.
• We have a variety of cooperation models and can provide a full range of scientific research or project development cooperation and services.

Alfa Cytology is dedicated to supporting scientists in making groundbreaking scientific discoveries and developing new applications to accelerate new drug discovery and scientific diagnosis and treatment. We have established the tumor microenvironment center technology platform with high performance scientific instruments and high value solutions to ensure high quality services that enable scientists to explore the mysteries of life at the tumor microenvironment level. Please let us know your project requirements and we will provide you with a comprehensive service from solution to report. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

Reference

1. Yang X, et al. VEGF-B promotes cancer metastasis through a VEGF-A-independent mechanism and serves as a marker of poor prognosis for cancer patients. [J]. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2015, 112(22): E2900.

All of our services and products are intended for preclinical research use only and cannot be used to diagnose, treat or manage patients.