UCL Discovery Stage
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery Stage

Abnormal morphology biases hematocrit distribution in tumor vasculature and contributes to heterogeneity in tissue oxygenation

Bernabeu, MO; Kory, J; Grogan, JA; Markelc, B; Beardo, A; d'Avezac, M; Enjalbert, R; ... Byrne, HM; + view all (2020) Abnormal morphology biases hematocrit distribution in tumor vasculature and contributes to heterogeneity in tissue oxygenation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , 117 (45) pp. 27811-27819. 10.1073/pnas.2007770117. Green open access

[thumbnail of 27811.full.pdf]
Preview
Text
27811.full.pdf - Published Version

Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

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.

Type: Article
Title: Abnormal morphology biases hematocrit distribution in tumor vasculature and contributes to heterogeneity in tissue oxygenation
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2007770117
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2007770117
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2020 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords: Science & Technology, Multidisciplinary Sciences, Science & Technology - Other Topics, tumor vasculature, hematocrit dynamics, oxygen heterogeneity, anti-angiogenic agents, mathematical modelling, CELL-FREE LAYER, BLOOD-FLOW, IN-VIVO, HYPOXIA, NORMALIZATION, TRANSPORT, PERFUSION, THERAPY, NETWORK, GROWTH
UCL classification: UCL
URI: https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10131402
Downloads since deposit
583Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item