Vessel constriction correlated with local singlet oxygen generation during vascular targeted photodynamic therapy

In this study, the vessel constriction was measured as a biological indicator of acute vascular response after vascular targeted photodynamic therapy (V-PDT). During V-PDT treatment, the near-infrared (NIR) singlet oxygen (O-1(2)) luminescence at 1270 nm generated in blood vessels in a dorsal skinfold window chamber model in vivo was directly monitored using a custom built high-sensitive NIR imaging system. In order to compare the acute vascular response, various irradiances with the same light dose were utilized for treatments. The obtained results show that the complete arteriole constriction occurred frequently, while some of the larger veins were constricted partially. For the vessels that have significant constriction after V-PDT, our preliminary data suggest that the vasoconstriction in the selected ROIs are roughly correlated with the local cumulative O-1(2) luminescence intensities. This study implies that the O-1(2) luminescence dosimetry maybe also effective for evaluating V-PDT efficiency.