Presence of pluripotent CD133+ cells correlates with malignancy of gliomas.
BACKGROUND
Presence of CD133(+) cancer stem cells has been demonstrated within glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most malignant phenotype of gliomas (WHO grade IV). Since GBM frequently develops from low grade gliomas (WHO grade II) we assessed a possible qualitative or quantitative correlation of CD133(+) cells and glioma grade to get new insights in gliomagenesis.


RESULTS
The amount of CD133(+) cells within the bulk tumor mass, analyzed by immunostaining and Western blotting, showed a clear quantitative correlation with glioma grade (WHO degrees II, III and IV). Most of CD133(+) cells were arranged in clusters frequently associated to tumor vessels. Protein analysis revealed high cellular coexpression of CD133 with Musashi-I but not CD34 indicating a neural, i.e. local origin of these cells. In vitro, no differences in stem cell properties concerning self-renewal and multi-lineage differentiation have been found for CD133(+) cells isolated from gliomas of different grades.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings indicate a solely quantitative correlation of glioma grade with the presence of neural CD133(+) cells within tumors supporting the concept of a CD133(+) stem cell dependent gliomagenesis.
Thon
Niklas
N
Department of Neurosurgery, Hospital of the University of Munich, Marchioninistr. 15, 81377 Munich, Germany. niklas.thon@med.uni-muenchen.de
Damianoff
Karin
K
Hegermann
Jemima
J
Grau
Stefan
S
Krebs
Bjarne
B
Schnell
Oliver
O
Tonn
Jörg-Christian
JC
Goldbrunner
Roland
R