Mouse Model of Lymph Node Metastasis via Afferent Lymphatic Vessels for Development of Imaging Modalities
Figure 4
Monitoring of metastatic progression by CE-HFUS with Als.
A. Imaging of the temporal changes in angiogenic vessel density in a cross-section of a metastatic proper-ALN, visualized by CE-HFUS with ALs. Blood vessel density increased with tumor progression. Red circles indicate the proper-ALN boundary, arrows and dotted lines indicate the AL-enhanced region, and green highlighting indicates the dense area of neovasculature in the proper-ALN. B. Results of 3D quantitative analysis of the temporal changes in blood vessel volume and density in metastatic proper-ALNs. The term “cells” indicates the metastasized group (1×105 cells/min, n = 4) and “PBS” the negative control group (n = 3). Values for each group were normalized against the measurement on day 0. Error bars indicate the SEM values. * is for comparison of the temporal change within each group; # is for comparison between groups. * or #, P<0.05; ** or ##, P<0.01, calculated using two-way ANOVA followed by the Tukey-Kramer test.
