Marina Radoul1,
Fortune Kohen2, Hagit Dafni3, Moriel Vandsburger2,
Sharon G. G. Wolf4, Michal Neeman2
1Radiology,
UCSF, San Francisco, CA, United States; 2Biological Regulation,
Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel; 3Veterinary
Resources, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel; 4Chemical
Research Support, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
One of the most common ECM components is hyaluronan (HA). Hyaluronidase (HYAL) degrades high molecular weight HA into low molecular weight fragments thus altering the ECM to become permissive to angiogenesis. Our goal is to detect HYAL non-invasively by MRI in order to predict the tilt of angiogenic balance within the tumor microenvironment. Here we demonstrate how r1 and r2 relaxivities altered in response to degradation of a novel contrast agent HA-GdDTPA nanoparticles by hyaluronidase secreted by ES-2 ovarian carcinoma cells.