Figure 1

Tissue perfusion rates are higher in LCC6^HER-2 tumours relative to LCC6^Vector tumours.

(A) Tumour perfusion maps of Gd-DTPA concentrations in edge to edge axial slices of LCC6^Vector and LCC6^HER-2 tumours (top and bottom row, respectively). The bright pixels within the images show areas of tumours which are actively perfused; the intensities correspond to Gd-DTPA concentrations. The areas of perfused tissue are more evenly distributed in LCC6^HER-2 tumours compared to LCC6^Vector tumours. (B) K_trans values show a strong trend towards higher perfusion rates in LCC6^HER-2(■) tumours compared to LCC6^Vector (□) tumours (median ± SD, p = 0.14, n = 4). (C) LCC6^Vector (□) and LCC6^HER-2 (■) cells were incubated in air-tight containers containing 1% oxygen in the presence of the hypoxia marker EF5 for two hours followed by staining with anti-EF5 antibody and flow cytometric analysis; fluorescence intensity (arbitrary units) indicates the relative amount of EF5 adducts present in the cells (mean ± SD). The graph shows that LCC6^HER-2 cells have significantly more adducts than LCC6^Vector cells indicating that under these conditions, they consume more oxygen and become hypoxic faster. Significant differences (p < 0.001) are indicated by the asterisk (*).