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Neuro-Oncology

Candidate brain cancer starter cells isolated from older mice

Laboratory experiments found dormant cells in elderly mice’s outer brain layer, and genetically altered cells became capable of forming tumors after a change in growth factors.

Paper by Sarah Sait, Mathieu Meode, Sophie Black, Hiba Omairi, John Gregory Cairncross · University of Calgary · Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute

Our read

Mechanisms
Studied:
Experiments in cortical cells from elderly mice
What changed:
Isolated cortical cells lacking p53 became capable of forming tumors after a growth-factor switch
The catch:
The tumor-forming result used p53-deficient cells, not unaltered cortical cells

Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper
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Elderly mice yielded dormant cells from the cerebral cortex, the brain’s outer layer, in laboratory experiments exploring the origins of glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. Researchers isolated the cells using platelet-derived growth factor C, a protein that stimulates cell growth. The cells formed small spheres that grew very little. They showed several stem-cell features, including the ability to expand rapidly when given two other growth factors.

Cortical cells lacking p53, a protein that helps suppress tumors, became independent of growth factors and capable of forming tumors after researchers switched them from platelet-derived growth factor C to platelet-derived growth factor A. The findings point to these cortical cells as candidate starting cells for glioblastoma.

Why it matters

Glioblastoma occurs in older adults, including in brain regions where the presence of stem-like cells has been uncertain. The work addresses whether cells in the aging cortex could be a source of this cancer.

Caveats

The tumor-forming result involved mouse cells lacking p53 and exposed to selected growth factors. It does not show that unaltered cortical cells start glioblastoma in people.

Where the evidence stands

TP53

Cells, mice and humans: replicated by independent labs. Worms or flies: a single group.

C, W, M, H: cells, worms or flies, mice, humans. Dark: independent labs found the same change there. Light: one lab or one study. Outline: nothing yet.

Labs are independent when their papers share no last author and no institution.

Against: findings that point the other way from most findings on the same outcome.

Company ties: findings with an author at a company, or from a paper whose competing-interests statement declares ties to one.

Includes the processes named after it and trials of drugs aimed at it.

  • 216 independent labs in 34 countries
  • 21 findings against
  • Funders: National Institutes of Health and others
  • 33 of 451 findings with company ties

Stem cell maintenance

Mice: replicated by independent labs. Cells, worms or flies and humans: a single group.

C, W, M, H: cells, worms or flies, mice, humans. Dark: independent labs found the same change there. Light: one lab or one study. Outline: nothing yet.

Labs are independent when their papers share no last author and no institution.

Against: findings that point the other way from most findings on the same outcome.

Company ties: findings with an author at a company, or from a paper whose competing-interests statement declares ties to one.

Includes the processes named after it and trials of drugs aimed at it.

  • 87 independent labs in 23 countries
  • 2 findings against
  • Funders: National Institutes of Health and others
  • 9 of 128 findings with company ties

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