Study suggests neural stem cells have tendency for malignant transformation

Although it is believed that glioma is derived from brain tumor stem cells, the source and molecular signal pathways of these cells are still unclear. The potential of neural stem cells to transform into brain tumor stem cells has long been considered, but has not been confirmed. A team led by Prof. Yingbin Li from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, China found that doxycycline-induced neural stem cells in the subventricular zone of c-myc+/SV40Tag+/Tet-on+ transgenic mice have increased proliferative activity and inhibitory differentiation similar to tumor stem cells, suggesting that neural stem cells have a tendency for malignant transformation, and could be a source of tumor stem cells. These findings were published in the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 8, No. 25, 2013).

Article: "Similarity on neural stem cells and brain tumor stem cells in transgenic brain tumor mouse models" by Guanqun Qiao1, Qingquan Li1, Gang Peng1, Jun Ma1, Hongwei Fan2, Yingbin Li1 (1 Department of Neurosurgery, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210000, Jiangsu Province, China; 2 Department of Pharmacology, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210000, Jiangsu Province, China)