The shunt problem: control of functional shunting in normal and tumour vasculature

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Item Type:	Review
Title:	The shunt problem: control of functional shunting in normal and tumour vasculature
Creators Name:	Pries, A.R., Hoepfner, M., le Noble, F., Dewhirst, M.W. and Secomb, T.W.
Abstract:	Networks of blood vessels in normal and tumour tissues have heterogeneous structures, with widely varying blood flow pathway lengths. To achieve efficient blood flow distribution, mechanisms for the structural adaptation of vessel diameters must be able to inhibit the formation of functional shunts (whereby short pathways become enlarged and flow bypasses long pathways). Such adaptation requires information about tissue metabolic status to be communicated upstream to feeding vessels, through conducted responses. We propose that impaired vascular communication in tumour microvascular networks, leading to functional shunting, is a primary cause of dysfunctional microcirculation and local hypoxia in cancer. We suggest that anti-angiogenic treatment of tumours may restore vascular communication and thereby improve or normalize flow distribution in tumour vasculature.
Keywords:	Biological Models, Computer Simulation, Gap Junctions, Microvessels, Neoplasms, Physiological Adaptation, Regional Blood Flow, Signal Transduction, Animals
Source:	Nature Reviews Cancer
ISSN:	1474-175X
Publisher:	Nature Publishing Group
Volume:	10
Number:	8
Page Range:	587-593
Date:	August 2010
Official Publication:	https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc2895
PubMed:	View item in PubMed

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