Infusion of 5-FU by intra-arterial application combined with DMS shows an increased drug accumulation within the tumor tissue compared to the normal liver parenchyma. This can be also demonstrated by

biochemical measurement showing that the AUC in the targeted tumor tissue is 95 times higher when 5-FU is applied in combination with DMS. 3.2. Degradation of DSM and the Resulting Effects on the Blood Flow As shown in Figure 3, DSM accumulates within the arterioles and blood vessels immediately after DMS is injected into the hepatic artery leading Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical to stepwise occlusion of the vessel. After approximately 8 minutes, the blood vessel is completely occluded. Figure 3 Stepwise occlusion of the blood vessel by accumulation of FITC-labelled DSM. First sign of DSM degradation SB431542 research buy process Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical can be observed after approximately 7–13 minutes (Figure 4(a)). The contours of the particles become more diffuse and the FITC-labelled degraded material is eliminated by washout (Figure 4(b)). Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Shortly afterwards, the remaining still intact but smaller particles are washed out along with the physiological blood flow in direction of the capillary bed and the systemic blood circulation

(Figure 4(c)). After round about 25–40 minutes, all starch microspheres are dissolved and no DSM particles are visible. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical The physiological blood flow has completely turned to normal (Figure 4(d)). Figure 4 (a) Diffuse contours of particles. (b) Partly washout of particles. (c) Washout of remaining particles along with the systemic blood circulation. (d) Reestablishing of the normal physiological

blood flow. Interestingly, the degradation processes of DSM lead to temporally blood flow shiftings caused by a negative pressure in the occluded blood vessels (Figure 5). The blood flow movements are supposed to be mainly caused by the degradation mode of α-amylase leading to randomly and stepwise degradation of the microspheres. Furthermore, the particles Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical are designed to maintain their spherical shape until they are completely dissolved [25]. These stepwise processes leave the degraded material during the degradation STK38 process within the blood vessels. Due to the increasing arterial pressure and due to the persisting occlusion effect of DSM, the blood flow centralizes in diverse side-arms of the precapillary system. Thereby, a negative pressure is created and may lead to the temporally reciprocal blood flow via some of the side-arms of the major blood vessels. These forward and backward movements happened several times even in peripheral tumor areas leading to increased contact frequency of the drug with the tumor tissue. Figure 5 Forward and backward movements of the blood flow while the degradation process of DSM is proceeding. 3.3.