A. Merzak et al., GANGLIOSIDES MODULATE PROLIFERATION, MIGRATION, AND INVASIVENESS OF HUMAN BRAIN-TUMOR CELLS IN-VITRO, Molecular and chemical neuropathology, 24(2-3), 1995, pp. 121-135
Gliomas, the most common form of intrinsic brain tumor, are characteri
zed by diffuse local invasion of the normal brain structures, irrespec
tive of their histological grade of malignancy; a feature that is a ma
jor obstacle to successful therapy. They generally infiltrate the cent
ral nervous system (CNS) as individual tumor cells several centimeters
beyond the macroscopic tumor margin and consequently often recur, aft
er subtotal surgical resection. Factors involved in the control of bot
h their proliferation and invasiveness are poorly documented. In this
work, the role of gangliosides on proliferation of both human fetal hu
man brain cells and five cell lines derived from human gliomas with di
fferent grades of malignancy was investigated. In addition, 8 mu m-por
osity polycarbonate filters were used to study cell motility. In addit
ion, these filters were coated with the reconstituted extracellular ma
trix (ECM) composite, Matrigel, to assess invasiveness. The results pr
esented show that gangliosides generally exert a proliferation inhibit
ory effect on fetal brain cells and glioma cell lines in vitro and pla
y an important role in promoting glioma cell motility and invasiveness
. The molecular mechanisms involved in the action of gangliosides may
prove useful in identifying new targets for an anti-invasion therapy.