文章基本信息

标题：Abnormal morphology biases hematocrit distribution in tumor vasculature and contributes to heterogeneity in tissue oxygenation
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作者：Miguel O. Bernabeu ; Jakub Köry ; James A. Grogan 等
期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2020
卷号：117
期号：45
页码：27811-27819
DOI：10.1073/pnas.2007770117
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Oxygen heterogeneity in solid tumors is recognized as a limiting factor for therapeutic efficacy. This heterogeneity arises from the abnormal vascular structure of the tumor, but the precise mechanisms linking abnormal structure and compromised oxygen transport are only partially understood. In this paper, we investigate the role that red blood cell (RBC) transport plays in establishing oxygen heterogeneity in tumor tissue. We focus on heterogeneity driven by network effects, which are challenging to observe experimentally due to the reduced fields of view typically considered. Motivated by our findings of abnormal vascular patterns linked to deviations from current RBC transport theory, we calculated average vessel lengths L ¯ and diameters d ¯ from tumor allografts of three cancer cell lines and observed a substantial reduction in the ratio λ = L ¯ / d ¯ compared to physiological conditions. Mathematical modeling reveals that small values of the ratio λ (i.e., λ < 6 ) can bias hematocrit distribution in tumor vascular networks and drive heterogeneous oxygenation of tumor tissue. Finally, we show an increase in the value of λ in tumor vascular networks following treatment with the antiangiogenic cancer agent DC101. Based on our findings, we propose λ as an effective way of monitoring the efficacy of antiangiogenic agents and as a proxy measure of perfusion and oxygenation in tumor tissue undergoing antiangiogenic treatment.
关键词：tumor vasculature ; hematocrit dynamics ; oxygen heterogeneity ; anti-angiogenic agents ; mathematical modelling