The heterogeneous nature of tumor vasculature and hemodynamics make it challenging to model transverse relaxation in such tissues. Here we imaged the intravascular oxygen saturation in healthy abdominal wall and breast tumor xenografts in mice using intrinsic optical signal (IOS) imaging, and used these quantitative data in realistic simulations of transverse relaxation. We found that the inclusion of de factooxygen distributions recapitulated the heterogeneity of tumor transverse relaxation rates in contrast to the traditional approach of assuming constant oxygen distribution for the tumor microvascular bed. These findings have important implications for BOLD MRI of tumors.
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