Integrated MRI Approaches to Interrogate Tumor Oxygenation and Vascular Perfusion of Orthotopic Brain Tumors in a Mouse Model

Heling Zhou¹, Amyn A. Habib¹, Ralph P. Mason¹, Dawen Zhao¹

Glioma is a lethal cancer. It is imperative to non-invasively evaluate intracranial tumor microenvironment. We applied multiple MRI approaches to evaluate tumor microenvironment in orthotopic gliomas in a mouse model. An interleaved T2*-weighted and T1-weighted sequence, sensitive to both blood and tissue oxygen tension, was applied to assess tumor oxygenation. Our results showed significantly increased signal intensity in intracranial tumors with oxygen inhalation. Dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI was used to evaluate vascular perfusion and correlate with change in oxygenation. Our study suggests the integrated MRI approaches will be useful to evaluate interplay of tumor oxygenation and hemodynamics.