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Automated Measurement of Microcirculatory Blood Flow Velocity in Pulmonary Metastases of Rats
Published on: November 30, 2014
Cancer Patient-Derived Circulating Microparticles Enhance Lung Metastasis in a Rat Model: Dual-Source CT, Cellular,
Sheung-Fat Ko1, Hon-Kan Yip2, Yen-Yi Zhen3
1Department of Radiology, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, 123 Ta-Pei Road, Niao-Sung District, Kaohsiung, 833, Taiwan. sfa.ko@msa.hinet.net.
Purpose:
This study aimed to test the hypothesis that lung cancer patient-derived circulating microparticles (LCC-MPs) enhance metastatic lung tumors in a rat model.
Procedures:
The controls (n = 6) and LCC-MP-treated rats (n = 6) with N1S1-induced pulmonary metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) underwent dual-source CT (DSCT) on days 10, 15, and 20. Cellular and molecular studies were performed subsequently.
Results:
DSCT revealed slow progression of metastatic lung tumors in the controls. Compared with the controls, the LCC-MP-treated rats exhibited significantly more and larger metastatic tumors on days 15 and 20 on DSCT, enhanced angiogenesis with higher microvessel count (CD34+), more CXCR4+ and VEGF+ cells in immunohistofluorescence studies, and higher protein expression levels of eNOS, angiopoietin, vascular endothelial growth factor, and CD31 on western blotting (Mann-Whitney test, all P < 0.05).
Conclusions:
LCC-MPs can elicit oncogenic stimulation and accelerate metastatic HCC growth in rat lung as demonstrated on DSCT and enhanced tumoral angiogenesis as confirmed in cellular and molecular studies.

