Differentiated glioma cell-derived fibromodulin activates integrin-dependent Notch signaling in endothelial cells to promote tumor angiogenesis and growth.

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) alone can initiate and maintain tumors, but the function of non-cancer stem cells (non-CSCs) that form the tumor bulk remains poorly understood. Proteomic analysis showed a higher abundance of the extracellular matrix small leucine-rich proteoglycan fibromodulin (FMOD) in the conditioned medium of differentiated glioma cells (DGCs), the equivalent of glioma non-CSCs, compared to that of glioma stem-like cells (GSCs). DGCs silenced for FMOD fail to cooperate with co-implanted GSCs to promote tumor growth.

Isolation and characterization of the immune cell fraction from murine brain tumor microenvironment.

The immune fraction of the tumor microenvironment has been proven to play a fundamental role in glioblastoma progression and therapeutic response. Here, we present a detailed magnetic-bead-enrichment-based protocol to isolate and analyze the composition of this fraction from mouse brain tumors. The protocol is optimized to achieve high yields of viable immune cells.

Exploring the longitudinal glioma microenvironment landscape uncovers reprogrammed pro-tumorigenic neutrophils in the bone marrow.

Recent multi-omics studies show different immune tumor microenvironment (TME) compositions in glioblastoma (GBM). However, temporal comprehensive knowledge of the TME from initiation of the disease remains sparse. We use Cre recombinase (Cre)-inducible lentiviral murine GBM models to compare the cellular evolution of the immune TME in tumors initiated from different oncogenic drivers.

P-selectin axis plays a key role in microglia immunophenotype and glioblastoma progression.

Glioblastoma (GB) is a highly invasive type of brain cancer exhibiting poor prognosis. As such, its microenvironment plays a crucial role in its progression. Among the brain stromal cells, the microglia were shown to facilitate GB invasion and immunosuppression.

5-Hydroxymethylcytosine as a clinical biomarker: Fluorescence-based assay for high-throughput epigenetic quantification in human tissues.

Epigenetic transformations may provide early indicators for cancer and other disease. Specifically, the amount of genomic 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC) was shown to be globally reduced in a wide range of cancers. The integration of this global biomarker into diagnostic workflows is hampered by the limitations of current 5-hmC quantification methods.