Neuro-oncologia

STEM CELLS

Brain tumors may arise from and contain cancer stem cells (CSCs) capable of self-renewal, proliferation, and differentiation that recapitulate the parent tumor. There is compelling evidence that some human brain tumors (e.g.glioblastoma) are heterogenous tissue composed from tumor cells and small portion of cancer stem cells – tumor-initiating cells, which have a high tumorigenic potential and a low proliferation rate. By definition, stem cells have an indefinite lifetime and reproduce over long periods of time making them likely to accumulate mutations that could lead to genetic instability.

The concept of cancer stem cells is actually a "rebirth" the the old idea that cancers arise from embryonic-like tissue from the German physician Rudolf Virchow considered by many to be the father of pathology (Virchow, 1858).

Cancer stem cells have been isolated from several types of malingnant brain tumors including gliomas, and also from benign tumors like hormone-positive and -negative pituitary adenomas (Xu et al, 2009)

Read more about cancer stem cells in: gliomas

CD133

Immunofluorescence photographs of representative U251 cells grown in 1% oxygen and processed with CD133 antibody (red). Cytoplasm and nucleus were stained with (1 μM) MitoTracker® (green) and DAPI (blue) respectively. Arrowhead showing one CD133-negative cell in the field (From Griguer et al, 2008)