Abstract
As a tumor surrogate, the mouse embryo presents as an excellent alternative for examining
the binding of angiogenesis-targeting microbubbles and assessing the quantitative
nature of molecular ultrasound. We establish the validity of this model by developing
a robust method to study microbubble kinetic behavior and investigate the reproducibility
of targeted binding in the murine embryo. Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor
2 (VEGFR2)-targeted (MBV), rat immunoglobulin G2 (IgG2) control antibody-targeted (MBC) and untargeted (MBU) microbubbles were introduced into vasculature of living mouse embryos. Non-linear
contrast-specific and B-mode ultrasound imaging, performed at 21 MHz with a Vevo-2100
scanner, was used to collect basic perfusion parameters and contrast mean power ratios
for all bubble types. We observed a twofold increase (p < 0.001) in contrast mean power ratios for MBV (4.14 ± 1.78) compared with those for MBC (1.95 ± 0.78) and MBU (1.79 ± 0.45). Targeted imaging of endogenous endothelial cell surface markers in
mouse embryos is possible with labeled microbubbles. The mouse embryo thus presents
as a versatile model for testing the performance of ultrasound molecular targeting,
where further development of quantitative imaging techniques may enable rapid evaluations
of biomarker expression in studies of vascular development, disease and angiogenesis.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 16, 2013
Accepted:
September 18,
2013
Received in revised form:
September 16,
2013
Received:
July 3,
2013
Footnotes
Conflicts of Interest: F.S. Foster acknowledges his role as consultant to VisualSonics Inc.
Identification
Copyright
© 2014 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
