Photoacoustic microscopy for evaluating combretastatin A4 phosphate induced vascular disruption in orthotopic glioma.

The use of an optical resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) system to evaluate the vascular disruptive effect of combretastatin A4 Phosphate (CA4P) on a murine orthotopic glioma with intact skull is described here. Second generation optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy scanner with a 532 nm pulsed diode-pumped solid-state laser that specifically matches the absorption maximum of hemoglobin in tissues was used to image orthotopic glioma inoculated in mouse brain. Two-dimensional maps of brain vasculature with a lateral resolution of 5 μm and a depth of 700 μm at a field of view 5 × 4 mm were acquired on normal brain and glioma brain. Longitudinal imaging of the brain pre- and post-administration of CA4P, a FDA approved drug for solid tumors, enabled the monitoring of hemodynamic changes in tumor vasculature revealing the well documented vascular shutdown and recovery associated with this drug. Our study marks the beginning of potential prospects of this technology as an imaging tool for preclinical and clinical study of pathologies characterized by changes in the vasculature.