Identification of genetic markers of the glial tumor by means of differential display technique

The Differential Display Reverse Transcriptase (DDRT) technique was adopted to isolate genetic markers specific for the two main grades of the Glial t umor, the Astrocytoma and the Glioblastoma. A total of 16 brain biopsies (4 Astrocytoma and 12 Glioblastoma) were analysed. The technique was modified in order to reduce the false-positive ratio by means of more stringent amp lification conditions. Electrophoretic patterns with previously selected ar bitrarily primers revealed differences between the grades, four of them wer e investigated through sequencing. These sequences did not show significant nucleotide and aminoacid similarity to any known sequences in the DataBase . Sensitivity of the method was documented by the evidence that only one of the selected markers was an artefact, while the others represented genetic markers of the human Glial neoplasm.