title: Vasculogenic mimicry-potential target for glioblastoma therapy: an in vitro and in vivo study.
abstract: Glioblastoma is one of the most angiogenic human tumors and characterized by microvascular proliferations. A better understanding of glioblastoma vasculature is needed to optimize anti-angiogenic therapy that has shown a promising but incomplete efficacy. The present study examined 48 glioblastomas by CD34 endothelial marker periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) dual staining and found non-endothelial cell-lined blood vessels that were formed by tumor cells (vasculogenic mimicry, VM) existing in a fraction of these tumors. We hypothesized that CD133-positive glioblastoma stem-like cells (GSCs) may play a pivotal role in glioblastoma VM formation and then demonstrated in vitro and in vivo that a subset of GSCs were capable of vasculogenesis. Moreover, we found that several growth factors involved in normal angiogenesis were expressed in GSCs. We describe here a new mechanism of alternative glioblastoma vascularization and open a new perspective for the anti-vascular treatment strategy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, 110001 Shenyang, Liaoning Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yinsheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Zhitao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jing
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Minghua
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhuang
authors.forename: Junzhe
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Zhongping
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yunjie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D015153:Blotting, Western; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D005909:Glioblastoma / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D008875:Middle Aged; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology*; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000473:pathology*; D014183:Transplantation, Heterologous