W. Paulus et al., DIFFERENTIAL EXPRESSION OF VERSICAN ISOFORMS IN BRAIN-TUMORS, Journal of neuropathology and experimental neurology, 55(5), 1996, pp. 528-533
Versican is a member of the family of large aggregating chondroitin su
lfate proteoglycans which are one of the major constituents of brain e
xtracellular matrix (ECM). We examined the expression of versican spli
ce variants at mRNA and protein levels in normal human brain and in gl
iomas, medulloblastomas, schwannomas, neurofibromas, and meningiomas.
RT-PCR revealed transcripts for V0 and V1 in all tissues. V2 mRNA was
restricted to gliomas and normal brain, while V3 mRNA was detected in
all tissues except for medulloblastomas. Immunohistochemistry using an
tibodies to the glycosaminoglycan (GAG)-alpha attachment domain of ver
sican (present in V0 and V2) revealed decreased staining of most gliom
a ECMs compared to normal neuropil, while some abnormal tumor vessels,
but not normal cerebral vessels, were GAG-alpha-positive. Expression
of the GAG-beta attachment domain (present in V0 and V1) was faint in
normal neuropil and cerebral vessels, but increased in tumor vessels a
nd was absent in most glioma ECMs. Both GAG-alpha and GAG-beta were ex
pressed in connective tissue of all nonglial tumors. Our data suggest
that V2 is the major versican isoform of normal neuropil and glioma EC
M. Furthermore, increased expression in tumor vessels and decreased ex
pression in glioma ECM of the anti-adhesive versican may be related to
marked local invasivity and rarity of extracranial metastasis of glio
mas.