Molecular Imaging of Hypoxia

Hypoxia is a condition of inadequate O₂ to support metabolic processes, which occurs when there is interruption in the vascular supply, or when tissues lose their O₂ supply acutely. When healthy cells are extremely deprived of O₂, they always die. Since tumor cells are increasingly vulnerable, they can have to an adaptation that negatively affects their response to treatment. Tumor cells quickly adapt to hypoxia by decelerating their rate of growth, and standard chemotherapy is lethal to cells at a level relative to growth..Molecular Imaging of Hypoxia Sample

In the article, Krohn, Link, and Mason inform that hypoxia can be measured with a probe that competes directly with intracellular O₂, in which the indicator was not trapped when O₂ supply was sustaining demand, but was maintained when O₂ supply was insufficient to accommodate all of the produced electrons in the electron-transport chain. Using this method, the researchers reported results that indicated that micro-autoradiographs that ¹⁴C-labeled derivatives of N-alkyl-2-nitroimidazoles were locked in hypoxic cells that were still alive.