Title:
Non-invasive imaging of lymphatic remodeling in response to injury through photodynamic therapy
Non-invasive imaging of lymphatic remodeling in response to injury through photodynamic therapy
Author(s)
Kuzminich, Yanina
Advisor(s)
Dixon, J. Brandon
Editor(s)
Collections
Supplementary to
Permanent Link
Abstract
The lymphatic system is an essential but often understudied in comparison with its cardiovascular counterpart. Such disparity could often be explained by the lack or complexity
of the existing imaging and analysis techniques available for the quantification of lymphatics compared to the ones available for the blood vasculature. An additional challenge is
the absence of representative in vivo models that efficiently replicate the lymphatic dysfunction observed in humans. Those factors motivate the continuous investigation of novel
models for lymphatic diseases and ways to evaluate the overall function of the lymphatic
system. Recently, it has been shown that verteporfin, a photosensitive drug widely used
for photodynamic therapy (PDT) to ablate the blood vessels, provides a similar effect on
lymphatic vessels. Here, we seek to administer verteporfin and perform PDT of collecting
lymphatics in the mouse tail, which is a commonly used location for the study of lymphatic
disorders and examine lymphatic remodeling, contractility, and transport in response to the
procedure. To quantify the induced changes, the lymphatic function was evaluated using a
near-infrared (NIR) imaging system. Additional image processing has been introduced to
access the NIR tracer distribution following the lymphatic injury caused by the verteporfin
administration. As a result, we are able to increase lymphatic permeability noninvasively
at the targeted area. This technique has the potential to be a stand-alone procedure to investigate the lymphatic response to a localized leakage and reactive oxygen species (ROS)
and serve as an improvement to existing in vivo models of lymphatic disorders.
Sponsor
Date Issued
2020-10-29
Extent
Resource Type
Text
Resource Subtype
Thesis