title: Neural stem/progenitor cells react to non-glial cns neoplasms.
abstract: It is well established that the normal human brain contains populations of neural stem/progenitor cells. Recent studies suggest that they migrate toward a variety of CNS tissue injuries. In an investigation of the potential role of neural stem cells in the pathogenesis of primary CNS lymphomas (NHL-CNS), we observed that neural stem/progenitor cells appeared to accumulate at the border of the tumors with the brain and in the advancing edge of the tumors, in a pattern similar to that seen with reactive gliosis. We identified neural stem/progenitor cells using standard immunohistochemical markers thereof, including CD133, nestin, Group II Beta-tubulin, Musashi1, and the transcription factor Sox2, in neurosurgically obtained specimens of NHL-CNS metastatic carcinoma , and metastatic melanoma . We had similar results with each of these markers but found that Sox2 antibodies provided the clearest and most robust labeling of the cells at the borders of these non-glial tumors. To exclude that the immunoreactive cells were actually neoplastic, double-label immunohistochemistry for Sox2 and CD20 (for NHL-CNS), Sox2 and cytokeratin (CAM5.2, for carcinomas), or Sox2 and HMB45 (for melanomas) showed that in each tumor type, Sox2-immunoreactive cells adjacent to and among the tumor cells were separate from neoplastic cells. Sox2/GFAP double-labeling revealed a consistent pattern of Sox2 immunopositivity both in reactive GFAP-immunopositive astrocytes and in GFAP-negative cells, at the interface of tumor and non-neoplastic brain. These results suggest that neural stem/progenitor cells migrate to non-glial neoplasms in the CNS, are a source of reactive astrocytes, and that Sox2 is a reliable immunohistochemical marker for these cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Division of Neurological Surgery, The University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, Missouri USA.
authors.forename: Jack Griffin
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology & Anatomical Sciences, The University of Missouri School of Medicine, M263 Medical Science Building, One Hospital Drive, Columbia, MO 65212 USA.
authors.forename: Douglas C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology & Anatomical Sciences, The University of Missouri School of Medicine, M263 Medical Science Building, One Hospital Drive, Columbia, MO 65212 USA.
authors.forename: Diane D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Cundiff
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Division of Neurological Surgery, The University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, Missouri USA.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Division of Neurological Surgery, The University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, Missouri USA.
authors.forename: N Scott
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Litofsky
keywords: Brain lymphoma; Cerebral metastases; Neural stem cells; Sox2