# QUANTITATION OF HYPOXIC TUMOR CELLS

> **NIH NIH R01** · BRITISH COLUMBIA CANCER AGENCY · 1988 · $59,923

## Abstract

Hypoxic cells in solid tumors are resistant to killing by ionizing
radiation, and are thought to limit the success of radiotherapy.
Many different methods have been designed to reduce or
eliminate the hypoxic cell problem, yet no convenient or accurate
method is currently available to actually measure hypoxic cells.
Techniques to quantify cellular hypoxia are now being developed
based primarily on the preferential metabolism and binding of
fluorescent nitroheterocycles by hypoxic cells.  Fluorscence-
activated cell sorting (FACS) allows the fluorscence of individual
cells to be measured, and this estimate of oxygenation can be
correlated with viability measurements and biochemical analyses
of cells sorted according to their flurorescence intensity.  The
feasibility of this method has been demonstrated in single cells
and spheroids, and will now be extended to mouse tumor models.
In addition, using the fluorescent probe AF-2, studies will
continue on reasons for heterogeneity of AF-2 binding in multicell
spheroids and tumors.  New probes will be evaluated in vitro and
in vivo, in the search for more fluorescent, less toxic
nitroheterocycles, and for other fluorescent markers which may
localize in hypoxic microregions in tumors.  Finally, the roles of
necrosis and transient hypoxia in binding of hypoxia probes in
tumors will be addressed.  In addition to FACS, a newly developed
fluorescence image processing system (FIPS) will be used to
measure fluorescence in frozen sections of tumors of spheroids,
thus providing the capability of 3-dimensional reconstruction of
the location of hypoxic tumor cells.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3175778
- **Project number:** 5R01CA037879-05
- **Recipient organization:** BRITISH COLUMBIA CANCER AGENCY
- **SAM.gov UEI:** LKF9B2BABMM6
- **Principal Investigator:** PEGGY L OLIVE
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1988
- **Award amount:** $59,923
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1984-03-01 → 1990-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3175778

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3175778, QUANTITATION OF HYPOXIC TUMOR CELLS (5R01CA037879-05). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3175778. Licensed CC0.

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