Abstract
Quantitative bioluminescence and single-photon imaging have been applied for mapping concentration distributions of metabolites, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP), glucose and lactate, in biopsies of cervical cancers in patients. Biopsies were taken before a conventional radiation treatment, and a number of clinically relevant data, such as local tumor control, patient survival, metastatic spread and so forth, were documented. There was no correlation between staging or grading and any of the metabolic parameters measured. Local correlations between ATP, glucose and lactate on a pixel-to-pixel basis were generally positive, with respective Spearman's correlation coefficients less in patients without clinically documented metastasis compared with those with metastatic spread. Lactate concentrations were significantly higher and scattered over a wider range in tumors with metastatic spread in comparison to malignancies in patients without metastasis. Thus, high local lactate levels of ≥20 μmole/g appear to be associated with a high risk of metastasis, at least in human cervical tumors.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ganong, W. F. In: Review of Medical Physiology. Appleton & Lange, East Norwalk, CI: 1991.
Gatenby, R. A., Kessler, H. B., Rosenblum, J. S., Coia, L. R., Moldofsky, P. J., Hartz, W. H., and Broder, G. J. Oxygen distribution in squamous cell carcinoma metastases and its relationship to outcome of radiation therapy. Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys.14 (1988) 831–838.
Hall, E. J. In: Radiobiology for the Radiologist. Harper & Row, Hagerstown, MD: 1978
Hirst, D. G., Hirst, V. K., Joiner, B., Prise, V., and Shaffi, K. M. Changes in tumour morphology with alterations in oxygen availability: further evidence for oxygen as a limiting substrate. Br. J. Cancer64 (1991) 54–58.
Höckel, M., Knoop, C., Schlenger, K., Vorndran, B., Baussmann, E., Mitze, M., Knapstein, P. G., and Vaupel, P. Intratumoral pO2 predicts survival in advanced cancer of the uterine cervix. Radiother. Oncol.26 (1993) 45–50.
Jain, R. K. Determinants of tumor blood flow: a review. Cancer Res.48 (1988) 2641–2658.
Kallinowski, F., Schlenger, K., Runkel, S., Kloes, M., Stohrer, M., Okunieff, P., and Vaupel, P.. Blood flow, metabolism, cellular microenvironment and growth rate of human tumor xenografts. Cancer Res.49 (1989) 3759–3764.
Kuhnle, G. E. H., Dellian, M., Walenta, S., Mueller-Klieser, W., and Goetz, A. E. Simultaneous high-resolution measurement of adenosine triphosphate levels and blood flow in the hamster amelanotic melanoma A-Mel-3. J. natl. Cancer Inst.84 (1992) 1642–1647.
Mueller-Klieser, W., Walenta, S., and Schwickert, G. Quantitative bioluminescence imaging—a method for the detection of metabolite distributions in frozen tissue. SPIE (International Society for optical Engineering) Proc.2083 (1994) 34–40.
Mueller-Klieser, W., Schaefer, C., Walenta, S., Rofstad, E. K., Fenton, B. M., and Sutherland, R. M. Assessment of tumor energy and oxygenation status by bioluminescence, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and cryospectrophotometry. Cancer Res.50 (1990) 1681–1685.
Mueller-Klieser, W. and Walenta, S. Geographical mapping of metabolites in biological tissue with quantitative bioluminescence and single photon imaging. Histochem. J.25 (1993) 407–420.
Mueller-Klieser, W., Walenta, S., Paschen, W., Kallinowski, F., and Vaupel, P. Metabolic imaging in microregions of tumors and normal tissues with bioluminescence and photon counting. J. natl. Cancer Inst.80 (1988) 842–848.
Secomb, T. W., Hsu, R., Dewhirst, M. W., Klitzman, B., and Gross, J. F. Analysis of oxygen transport to tumor tissue by microvascular networks. Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys.25 (1993) 481–489.
Vaupel, P., Kallinowski, F., and Okunieff, P. Blood flow, oxygen and nutrient supply, and metabolic microenvironment of human tumors: a review. Cancer Res.49 (1989) 6448–6465.
Walenta, S., Dellian, M., Goetz, A. E., Kuhnle, G. E. H., and Mueller-Klieser, W. Pixel-to-pixel correlation between images of absolute ATP concentrations and blood flow in tumours. Br. J. Cancer66 (1992) 1099–1102.
Walenta, S., Doetsch, J., and Mueller-Klieser, W. ATP concentrations in multicellular tumor spheroids assessed by single photon imaging and quantitative bioluminescence. Eur. J. Cell Biol.52 (1990) 389–393.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schwickert, G., Walenta, S. & Mueller-Klieser, W. Mapping and quantification of biomolecules in tumor biopsies using bioluminescence. Experientia 52, 460–463 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01919316
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01919316