Compartment- and malignance-dependent up-regulation of γ-glutamyltranspeptidase and dipetidylpeptidase-IV activity in human brain gliomas.

γ-Glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT, syn. γ-Glutamyltransferase) and dipeptidylpeptidase-IV (DPP-IV) activity participates in metabolic and growth control of normal and tumor cells by processing biologically active peptides. Here, we report on up-regulation of these enzymes in human brain gliomas determined by catalytic enzyme histochemistry and immunocytochemistry. Higher activity of GGT was found in 50%, 68% and 81% of WHO grade II, III and IV tumors, respectively. The process started at/near the microvasculature, from where it spread to the parenchyma. On average, the enzyme activity in grade II, III and IV gliomas exceeded controls 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5-fold, respectively. Up-regulation of DPP-IV-like activity also started at the microvasculature, but mainly in pericytes and mononuclear-like cells around the vessels and dispersed in the parenchyma. Marked elevation of this enzyme activity, comprising also tumor parenchyma, occurred only in grade IV glioblastomas (65% patients; 3.6 times above controls) which can, therefore, help in their differentiation from grade III gliomas. The increase of total DPP-IV-like activity also included its two enzymatic homologs, the canonical DPP-IV/CD26 and FAP-1α. The increase in GGT is supposed to be a tumor grade dependent response of microvasculature and tumor astrocytes to stress induced by tissue hypoxia and/or the metabolic aberrancies. The increase in DPP-IV-like activity in high-grade tumors can be attributed to inflammatory/scavenging processes performed by the mononuclear-like cells and, in glioblastomas, also to regressive changes in the structure and function of the microvasculature and tumor parenchyma, including astrocyte stress response. The inverse relationship between DPP-IV-like activity and Ki67 in most glioblastomas and shorter survival time of patients with low activity of this enzyme also suggest its anti-oncogenic effects.