Tunici Patrizia, Bissola Lorena, Lualdi Elena, Pollo Bianca, Cajola Laura, Broggi Giovanni, Sozzi Gabriella, Finocchiaro Gaetano
Istituto Nazionale Neurologico Besta, Dept. Experimental Neurology, Milano, Italy.
Mol Cancer. 2004 Oct 6;3:25. doi: 10.1186/1476-4598-3-25.
Pediatric brain tumors may originate from cells endowed with neural stem/precursor cell properties, growing in vitro as neurospheres. We have found that these cells can also be present in adult brain tumors and form highly infiltrating gliomas in the brain of immunodeficient mice. Neurospheres were grown from three adult brain tumors and two pediatric gliomas. Differentiation of the neurospheres from one adult glioblastoma decreased nestin expression and increased that of glial and neuronal markers. Loss of heterozygosity of 10q and 9p was present in the original glioblastoma, in the neurospheres and in tumors grown into mice, suggesting that PTEN and CDKN2A alterations are key genetic events in tumor initiating cells with neural precursor properties.
小儿脑肿瘤可能起源于具有神经干细胞/前体细胞特性的细胞，这些细胞在体外可生长为神经球。我们发现，这些细胞也可存在于成人大脑肿瘤中，并在免疫缺陷小鼠的大脑中形成高度浸润性胶质瘤。从三个成人大脑肿瘤和两个小儿胶质瘤中培养出了神经球。来自一个成人胶质母细胞瘤的神经球分化降低了巢蛋白的表达，增加了胶质和神经元标志物的表达。在原始胶质母细胞瘤、神经球以及在小鼠体内生长的肿瘤中均存在10q和9p的杂合性缺失，这表明PTEN和CDKN2A改变是具有神经前体特性的肿瘤起始细胞中的关键遗传事件。
