"On occasion, we do have the opportunity to see brain images of patients with tumors at an early stage of development, and in these cases I have noticed that the tumors are often associated with the ventricular system, particularly in the subventricular zone," says co-senior author Mitchel S. Berger, MD, professor and chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery, who treats patients at UCSF Medical Center and is director of the UCSF Brain Tumor Research Center. The UCSF Department of Neurological Surgery is one of the world's largest neurosurgical programs and leads the nation in research funding from the National Institutes of Health.
"The results presented in this study suggest that astyrocytic stem cells in the subventricular zone could be the source of gliomas," says Berger. To investigate this possibility, he says, the UCSF team is going to introduce the genetic defects known to promote brain tumor progression into astrocytic stem cells in cell culture and, ultimately, in animal model systems, to see if they develop the equivalent of human tumors. If they do form tumors, he says, the next goal would be to develop therapeutic strategies aimed at blocking astroyctic stem cell proliferation, or division, at an early stage of tumor development.
It would not be surprising if human astrocytic stem cells were predisposed to malignant transformation, says Sanai. The cells are constantly dividing, and thus going through the cell-cycle repeatedly, each cycle increasing the odds of a cell developing genetic errors. The accumulation of errors would make a cell more likely to slip into disregulated replication overdrive, the hallmark of cancer.
"If this theory proves true," says Sanai, "it would open up a whole new avenue in brain tumor research."
Building on previous research
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Contact: Jennifer OBrien
415-476-2557
University of California - San Francisco
18-Feb-2004