Characterization of tumor vasculature derived from angiogenesis and vasculogenesis by high-frequency three-dimensional Doppler ultrasound

Tumor vasculature is derived angiogenesis within primary tumors from sprouting host preexisting vessels and vasculogenesis within recurrent tumors from bone-marrow. The tumor recurred by means of the pathway of vasculogenesis after the tumor received unsuccessful therapy, and it has lower curability to therapy. Thus, investigating the features of tumor vascular patterns between the two vasculature pathways may provide a method for assisting improving tumor therapy. In this study, we proposed the potential of high-frequency ultrasound 3D Doppler images for characterizing pathways of the tumor vasculatures in recurrent and primary tumors in vivo. Murine tumors were transplanted in non-irradiated and pre-irradiated tissues to imitate the primary and recurrent tumor models, respectively. The 7^th days after inoculation, the cineloop of power Doppler-mode images were recorded to reconstruct 3-D tumor vasculature images using 40-MHz Doppler imaging system. Recurrent tumors show the blood vessels were more dilated and continuous than those in primary tumors. Recurrent tumors exhibited higher expression of tumor perfusion and lower the feature of branching pattern in tumor vasculature compared with primary tumors. Tumor volume values had no difference between the two tumor models. The study suggested that tumor perfusion and the feature of branching pattern in tumor vasculature could used to discriminate the angiogenesis and vasculogenesis pathways. It has the potential for exporting the responses of anti-vasculogenesis drug and improving the curability of recurrent tumors in the future.