Expression of BCL-2 gene product in embryonal tumors of the central nervous system.
BACKGROUND
The expression of bcl-2 is associated with suppression of programmed cell death and prolonged cell survival. Recently, immunoreactivity to the bcl-2 gene product has been reported not only in a variety of embryonal and adult nonhematopoietic tissues, but also in neuroblastoma. However, the study of bcl-2 expression has not been performed in brain tumors.


METHODS
In this study, we examined the incidence and significance of bcl-2 expression in 25 cases of embryonal tumors of the central nervous system, including medulloblastoma, neuroblastoma, ependymoblastoma, and PNET (primitive neuroectodermal tumor), which has the possibility of neuronal differentiation.


RESULTS
The results demonstrated that 13 tumors (52%) positive for bcl-2 belonged to early differentiated and neuronal types, and 7 negative tumors (28.0%) mostly belonged to undifferentiated type.


CONCLUSIONS
These results have led us to speculate on the possibility that tumor cells begin expressing bcl-2 along with their neuronal differentiation from primitive cells.
Oka
H
H
Department of Pathology, Kitasato University School of Medicine and Kanagawa, Japan.
Satoh
Y
Y
Kawano
N
N
Yagishita
S
S
Kameya
T
T
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000235:genetics; D016543:Central Nervous System Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D019204:GTP-Binding Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016393:Lymphoma, B-Cell / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009373:Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2
D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D019204:GTP-Binding Proteins