Activation of neural and pluripotent stem cell signatures correlates with increased malignancy in human glioma.

ABSTRACT: The presence of stem cell characteristics in glioma cells raises the possibility that mechanisms promoting the maintenance and self-renewal of tissue specific stem cells have a similar function in tumor cells. Here we characterized human gliomas of various malignancy grades for the expression of stem cell regulatory proteins. We show that cells in high grade glioma co-express an array of markers defining neural stem cells (NSCs) and that these proteins can fulfill similar functions in tumor cells as in NSCs. However, in contrast to NSCs glioma cells co-express neural proteins together with pluripotent stem cell markers, including the transcription factors Oct4, Sox2, Nanog and Klf4. In line with this finding, in high grade gliomas mesodermal- and endodermal-specific transcription factors w

SUBMITTER: Holmberg J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3069091 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature