World J Gastroenterol. Feb 14, 2007; 13(6): 821-825 Published online Feb 14, 2007. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v13.i6.821
The hepatic sinusoidal endothelial lining and colorectal liver metastases
Filip Braet, Keissuke Nagatsuma, Masaya Saito, Lilian Soon, Eddie Wisse, Tomokazu Matsuura
Filip Braet, Lilian Soon, Eddie Wisse, Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, Electron Microscopy Unit, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Keissuke Nagatsuma, Department of Pathology, The Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
Masaya Saito, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, The Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
Tomokazu Matsuura, Department of Laboratory Medicine, The Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the work.
Correspondence to: Professor Filip Braet, Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, Electron Microscope Unit, Madsen Building F09, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. filip.braet@emu.usyd.edu.au
Telephone: +61-2-93517619 Fax: +61-2-93517682
Received: November 8, 2006 Revised: November 21, 2006 Accepted: December 21, 2006 Published online: February 14, 2007
Abstract
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common malignant disease and the severe nature of cases in men and women who develop colorectal cancer makes this an important socio-economic health issue. Major challenges such as understanding and modeling colorectal cancer pathways rely on our understanding of simple models such as outlined in this paper. We discuss that the development of novel standardized approaches of multidimensional (correlative) biomolecular microscopy methods facilitates the collection of (sub) cellular tissue information in the early onset of colorectal liver metastasis and that this approach will be crucial in designing new effective strategies for CRC treatment. The application of X-ray micro-computed tomography and its potential in correlative imaging of the liver vasculature will be discussed.
