Establishment of attached and non-attached cell lines from an uncommon human glioma

Organotypic Models to Study Human Glioblastoma: Studying the Beast in Its Ecosystem

Glioblastoma is a very aggressive primary brain tumor in adults, with very low survival rates and no curative treatments. The high failure rate of drug development for this cancer is linked to the high-cost, time-consuming, and inefficient models used to study the disease. Advances in stem cell and in vitro cultures technologies are promising, however, and here we present the advantages and limitations of available organotypic culture models and discuss their possible applications for studying glioblastoma.

Cardiac toxicity and antitumor activity of 4'-deoxy-4'-iodo-doxorubicinol

The acute and chronic cardiotoxicity as well as the cytotoxicity of 4'-deoxy-4'-iodo-doxorubicinol (I-DXRol), the major metabolite of the doxorubicin (DXR) derivative 4'-deoxy-4'-iodo-DXR (I-DXR), were compared with those of I-DXR and DXR. In the acute study, anesthetized rats received i.v. DXR (10 mg/kg), I-DXR (4 mg/kg), or I-DXRol (4 mg/kg) and were monitored for ECG (S alpha T segment and T wave), systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure, the first derivative of the systemic arterial pressure (SA dP/dtmax), and heart rate. Treatments induced a significant widening of the S alpha T segment, but I-DXRol was significantly less toxic than I-DXR or DXR. As compared with control values, DXR induced a marked increase in SBP and DBP and a decrease in SA dP/dtmax, whereas I-DXR and I-DXRol induced modest changes in hemodynamic parameters. In the chronic study, 3 mg/kg DXR given to rats by i.v. bolus once a week for 3 weeks resulted in severe chronic cardiotoxicity that lasted 6 weeks and was characterized by S alpha T-segment widening, T-wave flattening, and severe cardiac histological damage. Doses of 1.2 mg/kg I-DXR and 1.2 and 2.4 mg/kg I-DXRol, given i.v. once a week for 3 weeks, and 3.6 mg/kg I-DXRol given as a single dose were associated with a significant T-wave voltage reduction; I-DXR and 2.4 mg/kg I-DXRol induced significant histological alterations of cardiac tissue as compared with control values, whereas modest alterations of heart tissue were observed after injections of 1.2 and 3.6 mg/kg I-DXRol in three doses and in a single dose, respectively. The cytotoxicity of the three anthracyclines against one glioblastoma cell line and two human small-cell lung cancer lines was similar. Results indicate that the acute cardiotoxicity of I-DXRol is lower than that of I-DXR and DXR, whereas the chronic heart damage is similar to that induced by I-DXR and significantly lower compared than that caused by DXR. Moreover, the cytotoxicity of the metabolite appears to be similar to that of I-DXR and DXR. The lack of additional cardiac toxicity due to I-DXRol further supports the lower overall cardiac toxicity of I-DXR, which retains a cytotoxic activity similar to that of the parent drug.

Cytogenetics of human brain tumors

The most frequent cytogenetic alterations in primary brain tumors are losses of chromosomes or chromosomal regions and the presence of double minute chromosomes (dmins). The regions which are lost and the genes which are amplified are distinctive for individual tumor types. Most malignant gliomas contain gains of chromosome 7 and losses of chromosome 10; losses of chromosome 22, 9p, and the sex chromosomes occur in subgroups of cases. The gene most frequently amplified in tumors with dmins is the epidermal growth factor receptor gene. Medulloblastomas have losses of 17p and most cases with dmins have c-myc gene amplification. Meningiomas have losses or deletions of chromosome 22. Identification of these specific cytogenetic abnormalities in human brain tumors has provided the framework for identifying genes which are amplified in them and has identified chromosomal regions likely to contain tumor suppressor genes, the loss or inactivation of which is important in the development of these tumors.

Chromosomal patterns in human malignant astrocytomas

Cytogenetic analysis by direct and/or in vitro preparations was performed on 34 malignant astrocytomas. Thirty tumors showed near-diploid chromosome numbers, whereas, tritetraploid chromosome complements were present in four tumors. The most frequent chromosomal changes implied numerical deviations by a gain of chromosomes #7, #19, and #20, and by losses of #10, #22, and Y. Structural rearrangements were present in stem- or side lines of 24 tumors. Although no common chromosomal rearrangement seems to exist among those tumors, chromosomes #1, #6, #7, and #9 were predominantly involved. Polysomy and structural rearrangements of chromosome #7 could be related to the overexpression of epidermal growth factor gene, previously observed in some malignant gliomas.

Chromosomal progression of malignant human gliomas from biopsy to establishment as permanent lines in vitro

Karyotypes of four malignant human gliomas were followed from direct preparation and/or short-term culture through their establishment in vitro to determine whether the cultured cells maintained the original karyotypes, or were the products of selection, progression, or alteration in vitro. The karyotypes of these four human glioma-derived cell lines showed the same evolutionary pattern consisting of a doubling of the stem line or a closely related population; one line changed ploidy again to near-pentaploid. Marker types seen originally were generally retained, but new markers were acquired in the later passages. We concluded that the eventual chromosomal compositions of these four human glioma-derived cell lines were the products of karyotypic evolution, rather than simple selection of a minor population of polyploid cells.

Chromosomal evolution in malignant human gliomas starts with specific and usually numerical deviations

Our previous karyotypic studies of malignant human gliomas have demonstrated that their most consistent early or primary gross changes include gains of #7, losses of #10, #22, and the gonosomes, and the presence of double minutes. Karyotypes of 15 additional malignant human gliomas reported here have confirmed these observations and, by enlarging our series, we can now show that in addition to double minutes, certain other gross structural abnormalities also are clearly associated with the early evolution of this type of tumor. The most prevalent deviations are deletions and translocations involving 9p. Other chromosomes commonly involved in rearrangements are #1, #6, and #13, and less frequently #7, #11, and #16.

The subpopulations and isolated cell types of freshly resected high grade human gliomas: their influence on the tumor's evolution in vivo and behavior and therapy in vitro

Human malignant gliomas are karyotypically heterogeneous, composed of many cellular populations and isolated cell types identifiable by cytogenetic techniques. The distributions of cell types vary in high grade tumors. Some tumors are primarily near-diploid (35-57 chromosomes per cell), while others are hyperdiploid with chromosome numbers ranging from 58 to several hundred chromosomes per cell. Regional studies of several tumors suggest that the heterogeneity is not random. Anatomically different regions result from the combination of cellular distribution and their evolution over time. The karyotypic pattern of gliomas also reflects the tumor's evolution from a relatively homogeneous population of near-diploid cells to the hyperdiploid tumor that is removed by the neurosurgeon. The in vitro studies also suggest that there are phenotypic correlates to the karyotypic pattern of the tumor cells. Hyperdiploid cells are unstable in culture, tend to grow rapidly with short doubling times, and are often sensitive to such chemotherapeutic agents as BCNU. In contrast, the near-diploid cells are more normal in appearance, are stable in culture, grow slowly with long doubling times, are more likely to be resistant to the nitrosoureas and ultimately are the 'stem' cells that repopulate the tumor mass.

Chromosomal composition of four permanent cultured cell lines derived from human gliomas

Four permanent cell lines derived from malignant human gliomas were karyotyped using Giemsa-trypsin banding. D-65 MG had a stemline with 44 chromosomes, including 11 markers: 1p+, 2q-, 3p-, 3q+, 4p-, 9q-, 11q+, 15q-, 17p+, 21p+, 22q-. The net effect after accounting for fragments in markers was: +8, -10, -16 -X. D-32 MG had chromosome counts 90-91 without a distinct stem karyotype. Modal cells contained from 3 to 5 copies of the normal autosomes and 5 markers: 1q-, 3q-, 7q-, 13q-, 18q-. D-32 MGCl2 had a complex karyotype containing 78-82 chromosomes. There was no stemline, and modal cells varied from one another primarily in their set of marker chromosomes. A total of 23 markers were seen in this line, 17 of which were present in most modal cells. They were partially characterized as: 1q+, 1q+, 2q-, 5q+, 7p-, 7q-, 8p+, 8p+, 9p+, 12p+, 14q-, 16q+, 19q+, 19q+, a small submetacentric chromosome of undetermined origin and two small isochromosomes, i(Dp or Gp) and i(17p or 18p). A-172 MG had a modal peak of 77 chromosomes within which no two cells were exactly alike. Ten markers seen in modal cells were: 1p-, 4p+, 6p+, 6p+, 6q-, 7p-, 9p-q+, 13q+ 14p+, 22q+. There were no normal copies of chromosomes #1, #6, #9, #14. These four glioma-derived cell lines possess unique karyotypes, but each displays some combination of the numerical and structural deviations generally associated with established glioma lines.