Observation of the Primo Vessel Approaching the Axillary Lymph Node with the Fluorescent Dye, DiI.

Su Youn Park,Byung-Soo Chang,Ju Hwan Yoon,Sungchul Kim,Seung Hwan Lee,Kwang-Sup Soh

doi:10.1155/2014/287063

Abstract

The primo vascular system (PVS) floating in lymph fluid has mostly been observed in large caliber ducts around the caudal vena cava and the thoracic duct of rabbits, rats, and mice. But the PVS has not been traced up to the lymph nodes. It has not been established whether the PVS leaves the lymph vessel through the lymph vessel wall or it enters the lymph nodes. Therefore, observing the PVS entering a lymph node, for example, the axillary node, is desirable. In the current work, we traced the PVS approaching up to the surface of axillary node of a rat. The method used for this study was based upon a method that was recently developed to detect the PVS in the lymph duct from the inguinal to the axillary nodes in the skin of a rat by injecting Alcian blue into the inguinal node. However, the Alcian blue blurred near the lymph nodes and tracing the PVS up to the lymph nodes has not been possible. The current method clearly showed the PVS approaching the axillary node.

Highlights

The primo vascular system (PVS) was originally noticed more than fifty years ago [1, 2], its confirmation was only recently made because no method for its observation was described in the original literature
A rare case was a primo vessel in a lymph vessel that came from a tumor that had been xenografted in the ventral skin of a mouse [10]
In the current work we found that another dye, 1,1󸀠-dioctadecyl-3,3,3󸀠3󸀠tetramethylindocarbocyanine perchlorate (DiI), worked better to trace the primo vessel up to the surface of the axillary lymph node

Summary

Introduction

The primo vascular system (PVS) was originally noticed more than fifty years ago [1, 2], its confirmation was only recently made because no method for its observation was described in the original literature. The PVS was observed for the first time in the lymph duct running from the inguinal to the axillary lymph nodes in the skin by injecting Alcian blue into the inguinal lymph node [12] This was a big step forward in the sense that it had become possible to observe the L-PVS for a long period of time without severe surgery because it will only need a window system to observe the lymph in skin. Such monitoring will lead to a physiological understanding of the periodic generation of cells in primo nodes, as claimed by Kim [2]. The role of the L-PVS in cancer metastasis through the lymph duct [10, 11] is an important issue

Materials and Methods

Results

Discussion