Angiogenesis Research
Angiogenesis Research |
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Vessel
growth can occur in different pathological situations. Arterio- and angiogenesis
is a desired effect for improvement of tissue oxygen supply in peripheral occlusions,
whereas angiogenesis in tumours is tried to be inhibited.
The natural or therapeutic changes in microcirculation induces by angiogenesis can be observed by blood
flow measurements.
The
figure shows the blood flow measured with a laser Doppler imager (lower picture)
and the blood flow and oxygen saturation measured with O2C (upper picture)
after ligation of the right hind limb artery in mice. The values are shown as
right-left-ratios.
Interestingly there is a discrepancy between recovery of oxygen saturation and
simultaneously decreased blood flow, that could mean decreased metabolism of
the tissue. The more superficial blood flow measured by the Laser Doppler Imager
is also showing a faster recovery than the blood flow measured by O2C.
During vessel growth after ischemia the blood flow recovers after a certain time. Cell death or down regulated metabolism during ischemia can result in almost normal oxygen saturation values despite low blood flow.