bFGF Up-regulation Reduces Spontaneous Necrosis of VX2 Tumors Without Increasing Tumoral Microvascular Density.

Aim: To determine whether up-regulation of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in VX2 cells reduces tumor necrosis.

Materials And Methods: VX2 cells were transfected with expression vector containing cDNA of rabbit bFGF. Stable clones producing rabbit bFGF (bFGF-VX2) were selected.

Pulmonary artery chemoembolization in a sheep model: Evaluation of performance and safety of irinotecan eluting beads (DEB-IRI).

The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare plasma pharmacokinetics, lung tissue concentration, and the potential toxicity of drug eluting beads loaded with irinotecan (DEB-IRI) in a sheep pulmonary artery chemoembolization (PACE) model. Sheep (n = 24) were embolized with DEB-IRI loaded with different doses (0, 20, 50, or 100 mg). Direct pulmonary artery (PA) injections of irinotecan were also performed at two doses (50 or 100 mg; n = 4 sheep).

Simple liquid chromatography method for the quantification of irinotecan and SN38 in sheep plasma: application to in vivo pharmacokinetics after pulmonary artery chemoembolization using drug eluting beads.

A rapid and simple liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection (LC-FD) method was developed and validated for the simultaneous quantification of irinotecan (CPT11) and SN38 in sheep plasma. Camptothecin (CPT) was used as the internal standard. A single step protein precipitation with acetonitrile was used for sample preparation.

Do microspheres with narrow or standard size distributions localize differently in vasculature? An experimental study in sheep kidney and uterus.

Purpose: To compare standard embolization microspheres (SMS) with microspheres of very narrow size distribution in terms of physical properties and relative distribution within sheep kidney and uterine artery models of embolization.

Materials And Methods: Standard microspheres (SMS; 500-700 mum and 700-900 mum) were compared with narrow microspheres (NMS) of the same material made with a microfluidic method that produced a much narrower size distribution (600 mum and 800 mum). Characterization of both microspheres was performed in vitro (ie, bead size, water content, and compressive modulus).

MR imaging detection of superparamagnetic iron oxide loaded tris-acryl embolization microspheres.

Purpose: To assess by magnetic resonance (MR) imaging the detectability of superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO)-labeled microspheres (MSs) in vitro on gelose, ex vivo in kidneys from embolized sheep, and in vivo in kidneys from embolized pigs.

Materials And Methods: With various sizes of SPIO-labeled MSs, common neck and pelvic spin-echo and gradient-echo sequences were acquired on a 1.5-T MR unit.