Optical imaging of the peri-tumoral inflammatory response in breast cancer

Akhilesh K. Sista, Robert J. Knebel, Sidhartha Tavri, Magnus Johansson, David G. DeNardo, Sophie E. Boddington, Sirish A. Kishore, Celina Ansari, Verena Reinhart, Fergus V. Coakley, Lisa M. Coussens, Heike E. Daldrup-Link

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Purpose: Peri-tumoral inflammation is a common tumor response that plays a central role in tumor invasion and metastasis, and inflammatory cell recruitment is essential to this process. The purpose of this study was to determine whether injected fluorescently-labeled monocytes accumulate within murine breast tumors and are visible with optical imaging. Materials and methods: Murine monocytes were labeled with the fluorescent dye DiD and subsequently injected intravenously into 6 transgenic MMTV-PymT tumor-bearing mice and 6 FVB/n control mice without tumors. Optical imaging (OI) was performed before and after cell injection. Ratios of post-injection to pre-injection fluorescent signal intensity of the tumors (MMTV-PymT mice) and mammary tissue (FVB/n controls) were calculated and statistically compared. Results: MMTV-PymT breast tumors had an average post/pre signal intensity ratio of 1.8+/- 0.2 (range 1.1-2.7). Control mammary tissue had an average post/pre signal intensity ratio of 1.1 +/- 0.1 (range, 0.4 to 1.4). The p-value for the difference between the ratios was less than 0.05. Confocal fluorescence microscopy confirmed the presence of DiD-labeled cells within the breast tumors. Conclusion: Murine monocytes accumulate at the site of breast cancer development in this transgenic model, providing evidence that peri-tumoral inflammatory cell recruitment can be evaluated non-invasively using optical imaging.

Original languageEnglish
Article number94
JournalJournal of Translational Medicine
Volume7
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 11 2009

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