Int J Med Sci 2019; 16(11):1525-1533. doi:10.7150/ijms.36470 This issue Cite
Research Paper
1. Department of Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, 02447, Republic of Korea
2. Department of Life and Nanopharmaceutical Science, Graduate School, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, 02447, Republic of Korea
3. Biomedical Engineering Research Center, Asan Institute for Life Sciences, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, 05505, Republic of Korea
4. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, College of Dentistry, Wonkwang University, Iksan, 54538, Republic of Korea
5. Department of Radiation Oncology, School of Medicine, Wonkwang University, Iksan, 54538, Republic of Korea
6. Department of Hemato-Oncology, Yuseong Sun Hospital, Daejeon, 34084, Republic of Korea
7. Department of Convergence Medicine, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, 05505, Republic of Korea
Radiotherapy, although used worldwide for the treatment of head, neck, and oral cancers, causes acute complications, including effects on vasculature and immune response due to cellular stress. Thus, the ability to diagnose side-effects and monitor vascular response in real-time during radiotherapy would be highly beneficial for clinical and research applications. In this study, recently-developed fluorescence micro-endoscopic technology provides non-invasive, high-resolution, real-time imaging at the cellular level. Moreover, with the application of high-resolution imaging technologies and micro-endoscopy, which enable improved monitoring of adverse effects in GFP-expressing mouse models, changes in the oral vasculature and lymphatic vessels are quantified in real time for 10 days following a mild localized single fractionation, 10 Gy radiotherapy treatments. Fluorescence micro-endoscopy enables quantification of the cardiovascular recovery and immune response, which shows short-term reduction in mean blood flow velocity, in lymph flow, and in transient immune infiltration even after this mild radiation dose, in addition to long-term reduction in blood vessel capacity. The data provided may serve as a reference for the expected cellular-level physiological, cardiovascular, and immune changes in animal disease models after radiotherapy.
Keywords: head and neck cancer, radiotherapy, mouse models, microendoscopy, fluorescence imaging