Glycosphingolipid component profiles or human gliomas--correlation to survival time and histopathological malignancy grading.
BACKGROUND
Glycosphingolipids (GSL) are expressed on the surface of neuroectodermal cells. The correlation of a variety of distinct GSL with different primary brain tumors has been demonstrated. Three distinct GSL-component profiles (GSL-types I, II and III) of human gliomas have been defined by our group. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the correlation of the established GSL-types I-III with survival time and histopathological malignancy grading in 40 human gliomas.


METHODS
Neutral and acidic GSL-component patterns, histopathological malignancy grade and survival time, and a number of other relevant variables were examined. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were analyzed with the log rank test.


RESULTS
GSL-type I was expressed in 18 tumors (17 Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and 1 anaplastic astrocytoma (AA)). GSL-type II was expressed in 11 tumors (7 GBM, 3 AA, 1 low grade astrocytoma (LGA)). 10 patients presented with GSL-type III (3 GBM, 4 AA, 3 LGA). Kaplan Meier survival curves of GSL-types I-III differed significantly (p = 0.0231, log-rank-test). However, survival time correlated better to the WHO grades. Within a given malignancy grade, GSL-types gave additional informations about the proliferative properties.


CONCLUSIONS
This is the first report of a correlation between survival time and human glioma neutral and acidic GSL-components. The results are in agreement with observations of other investigators. The analysis of GSL-type expression might give useful additional information about proliferative properties of human gliomas in a given malignancy grade. In particular, the early prediction of outcomes in anaplastic or low grade gliomas might be possible.
Becker
R
R
Department of Neurosurgery, Philipps-University Hospital Marburg, Germany.
Rohlfs
J
J
Jennemann
R
R
Wiegandt
H
H
Mennel
H D
HD
Bauer
B L
BL
D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D005910:Glioma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D006028:Glycosphingolipids / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D013534:Survival
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D006028:Glycosphingolipids