title: Brainstem glioma progression in juvenile and adult rats.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Brainstem gliomas are common in children and have the worst prognosis of any brain tumor in this age group. On the other hand, brainstem gliomas are rare in adults, and the authors of some clinical studies have suggested that this lesion behaves differently in adults than in children. In the present study, the authors test an orthotopic C6 brainstem glioma model in juvenile and adult rats, and investigate the biological behavior of this lesion in the 2 age groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  The C6 glioma cells were stereotactically implanted into the pons of juvenile or adult male rats. Neurological presentation and survival time were recorded. Tumor proliferation and the number of apoptotic cells in brainstem gliomas of young and adult rats were determined by immunohistochemical staining with Ki 67 and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase 2'-deoxyuridine 5'-triphosphate-mediated nick-end labeling assay.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Striking differences in the onset of neurological signs, duration of symptoms, survival time, tumor growth pattern, tumor proliferation, and number of apoptotic cells were found between the gliomas in the 2 groups of rats. The lesions were relatively focal in adult rats but more diffuse in young rats. Furthermore, brainstem gliomas in adult rats were less proliferative and had more apoptotic cells than those in young rats.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The authors found that the C6 brainstem glioma model in young and adult rats closely imitates the course of brainstem glioma in humans both in neurological findings and histopathological characteristics. Their findings also suggest that the different growth pattern and invasiveness of these lesions in children compared with that in adults could be due to different cellular environments in the 2 age groups, and warrants further investigation into the difference in the host response to brainstem gliomas in children and adults.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, Texas 76107, USA.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Ran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Meghana V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Kashyap
authors.forename: Rajnee
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Agarwal
authors.forename: Xiang'en
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Chung-cheng
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Shao-Hua
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D020295:Brain Stem Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D018450:Disease Progression; D005910:Glioma / Q000473:pathology*; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation / Q000473:pathology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley