Background
Advances in small animal imaging have improved the detection and monitoring of cancer in vivo, although with orthotopic models precise localization of tumors remains a challenge. In this study, we evaluated multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) as an imaging modality to detect pancreatic adenocarcinoma in an orthotopic murine model.
Methods
In vitro binding of syndecan-1 probe to the human pancreatic cancer cell line S2VP10 was evaluated on flow cytometry. For in vivo testing, S2VP10 cells were orthotopically implanted into the pancreas of SCID mice. At 7 days post-implantation, the mice were intravenously injected with syndecan-1 probe and tumor uptake was evaluated with multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) at multiple time points. Comparison was made to a free-dye control, indocyanine green (ICG). Probe uptake was verified ex vivo with fluorescent imaging.
Results
Syndecan-1 probe demonstrated partial binding to S2VP10 cells in vitro. In vivo, syndecan-1 probe preferentially accumulated in the pancreas tumor (480 MSOT a.u.) compared to off-target organs, including the liver (67 MSOT a.u.) and kidney (96 MSOT a.u.). Syndecan-1 probe accumulation peaked at 6 hours (480 MSOT a.u.), while the ICG control dye failed to demonstrate similar retention within the tumor bed (0.0003 MSOT a.u.). At peak accumulation, signal intensity was 480 MSOT a.u., resulting in several times greater signal in the tumor bed than in the kidney or liver. Ex vivo fluorescent imaging comparing tumor signal to that within off-target organs confirmed the in vivo results.
Conclusion
MSOT demonstrates successful accumulation of syndecan-1 probe within pancreatic tumors, and provides high resolution images which allow non-invasive, real time comparison of signal within individual organs. Syndecan-1 probe preferentially accumulates within a pancreatic adenocarcinoma model, with minimal off-target effects.