Perpetual motion and glioma growth.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to P L Kornblith.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Human glioma-derived cell cultures and lines have proven to be of significant value in the study of the basic properties that contribute to the highly malignant, invasive and angiogenic phenotype of glioblastoma multiforme tumors. It is frequently difficult to establish lines that retain glial tumor properties in long term culture. The SNB-19 cell line has maintained and exhibited properties of transformation, differentiation, autocrine growth response, and tumorigenesis while remaining in culture for over 13 yr and undergoing over 200 passages. This human line has been utilized in a wide range of studies related to the basic properties of human glioblastoma multiforme. In this report, we summarize the immunologic, biochemical, and cytogenetic properties of this versatile cell line and its utility for additional mechanistic investigation into the pathophysiology of the progression of human malignant gliomas.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Experiments were performed using an established human glioblastoma cell line to determine the effect of lipoproteins on regulating their growth. It was found that synthetic and natural human high density lipoproteins (HDL) were effective in inhibiting tumor cell growth in a nontoxic, dose-dependent manner, and that the LD50 was 10-fold lower than that for normal rat astrocytes grown under identical conditions. In the presence of the antioxidant, glutathione, essentially all of the growth-inhibiting properties of HDL could be reversed suggesting that oxidized lipids from the HDL interacting with the plasma membranes of the glioblastoma cells were responsible for the growth-inhibiting effect observed. The markedly lower concentration of HDL required to inhibit glioblastoma cells in culture compared to normal astrocytes suggested that the mechanism of HDL-induced inhibition may be important for tumor growth in vivo. One possible mechanism under investigation is the possibility of HDL modulation of a membrane-associated, tumor-specific phosphatase.
The blood supply to the intestines is a complex one, including branches of the three main splanchnic arteries as well as a vast collateral circulation. The variant anatomy and collateral pathways are described, based on anatomic dissections and angiographic studies, to focus attention on anatomically based explanations for clinical entities.
Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), a potent mitogen and angiogenic peptide, has been examined as an autocrine regulator of glioma cell growth. The addition of purified bovine pituitary bFGF to an established human glioma cell line, SNB-19, doubled the density of these cells in chemically defined medium. Half-maximal stimulation occurred at 8.2 ng/ml (480 pM). Also, human recombinant bFGF (hr-bFGF) significantly enhanced the growth of SNB-19 cells in soft agar. SNB-19 cells expressed both high and low affinity binding sites for hr-bFGF. These cells expressed approximately 13,000 high affinity sites/cell (Kd = 16.6 +/- 1.7 pM) and 9.5 x 10(6) low affinity sites/cell (Kd = 61.2 +/- 4.1 nM). The results of cross-linking experiments with iodinated hr-bFGF demonstrated the presence of two bands with molecular masses of 145 and 130 kDa. High affinity receptors were also demonstrated in SNB-19 tumors grown in nude mice. SNB-19 cell extracts contained mitogenic activity that eluted from heparin-agarose with high salt (1.2-2 M NaCl) and exhibited many properties normally associated with authentic bFGF. This material cross-reacted with a monoclonal antibody to hr-bFGF, comigrated with hr-bFGF by Western blot analysis, competed with 125I-hr-bFGF in a radioreceptor assay, and stimulated SNB-19 cell growth. These results indicate that a human glioma cell line both expresses and utilizes a bFGF-like growth factor. Such a factor may be an important autocrine regulator of glioma cell growth and may also facilitate its neoplastic progression.
Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) is a potent mitogen and angiogenic factor. bFGF is expressed by a variety of solid human tumors and has been implicated as an autocrine regulator of tumor growth. Different solid tumor lines including glioma, colon carcinoma and melanoma were examined for intracellular immunoreactive bFGF, high- and low-affinity bFGF receptors and mitogenic response to bFGF when grown in chemically defined medium. All tumor lines contained significant levels of bFGF. In addition, all tumor lines contained subsets of five forms of immunoreactive bFGF, as well as 0.68-20 x 10(6) low affinity bFGF binding sites (Kd = 15-300 nM). Most, but not all lines exhibited high affinity bFGF receptors (Kd = 25-40 pM). Glioma cell lines were distinguished by expressing the highest levels of bFGF protein as well as the most high-affinity receptors for bFGF. Furthermore, glioma cell lines were the only tumor type mitogenically responsive to bFGF. These results indicate that glioma cells express high levels of this potent mitogen and angiogenic factor relative to human colon carcinoma and melanoma cells. The expression of bFGF and bFGF receptors by glioma cells may be related to abnormal growth and neoplastic progression in these tumors.
Cisplatinum (cis-dichlorodiammineplatinum II (NSC-119875], proven to be of therapeutic value in a variety of solid tumors, is thought to have DNA as its major target. Prior in vitro studies have suggested that it also induced cell membrane and cytoplasmic changes. To better understand glial tumor cell sensitivity to cisplatinum and to design more effective adjuvant therapy, three cisplatinum sensitive human glioma-derived cell lines, SNB-1, SNB-3, SNB-4, were examined by transmission electron microscopy for cisplatinum induced changes. Tumor cells were exposed to 25, 50, and 100 micrograms/ml cisplatinum in medium for varying time periods (4-72 hours). Four changes were consistent: cell rounding and reduced nuclear-cytoplasmic ratio, nuclear chromatin clumping, vesiculation and swelling of the golgi apparatus, and dilatation of the smooth endoplasmic reticulum. These morphologic changes are distinct for cisplatinum and unlike those induced by BCNU (plasma membrane blebbing) and AZQ (mitochondrial swelling and destruction) previously seen in our laboratory. The cellular events described here suggest that cytoplasmic, as well as nuclear, changes (occurring within the same time intervals) may both be relevant to the antitumor effects of cisplatinum.
The mechanisms by which lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells exert their cytotoxic effects are not well understood. This study demonstrates that phorbol ester pretreatment of a LAK cell-sensitive glioma cell line (SNB-19) induced a significant decrease in the susceptibility of cells to LAK cell-mediated lysis. This effect was produced by low concentrations of the tumor-promoting phorbol ester, phorbol-12,13-myristate acetate (PMA), and was reversible. Protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitors failed to block this phenomenon. No apparent alteration in the ability of LAK cells to bind to their targets was observed. Thus, PMA may have exerted its effects by a mechanism that does not require PKC, or these glioma cells may possess an isozyme of PKC which is insensitive to the inhibitors used in these studies.
The activity of the serine protease plasminogen activator (PA), which correlates with tumorigenicity and metastatic capacity, was examined using the 125I-labeled fibrin plate assay in cell extracts from four human glioma lines as a function of growth in vitro. Cell-associated inhibitory activity to plasmin and urokinase-type PA was also measured concurrently. The relative PA activities differed markedly among the lines, whereas inhibitory activities did not. Two lines, SNB-19 and SNB-75, exhibited maximal PA activities (1-6 m Plough units/micrograms protein) as cultures approached confluence, whereas two other lines, SNB-56 and SNB-78, expressed low PA activity at all times (less than 0.2 m Plough units/micrograms protein). The PA of SNB-19 cell extracts was predominantly urokinase-type PA. In addition to having the highest PA levels, SNB-19 and SNB-75 were the most clonogenic in soft agar and tumorigenic in nude mice. In contrast, SNB-56 and SNB-78 were poorly clonogenic in soft agar and were not tumorigenic in nude mice. Measured directly, inhibitory activities to plasmin, urokinase-type PA, and tissue-type PA were detected in SNB-19 (high PA) and SNB-56 (low PA) cell extracts. However, there were no qualitative or quantitative differences in inhibitor effects between SNB-19 and SNB-56 suggesting that the differences in PA activity between these lines resulted from changes in PA activity and were not due to differential plasminogen activator inhibitor effects. The ability of the differentiating agent sodium butyrate (NaB) to modulate total PA activity was also examined. Peak SNB-19 cell PA activity was decreased in a concentration (Ki, 0.75 mM) and time-dependent manner by the addition of nontoxic amounts of NaB. The dose-dependent decrease in PA activity induced by NaB was most likely due to an effect on PA itself, since the action of inhibitor on urokinase was unchanged in response to NaB. These results suggest that net cellular PA activity in glioma cells is a balance between relative PA activity and inhibitor(s) effects and that this balance can be modulated by sodium butyrate.
There continues to be an extensive effort to develop chemotherapeutic approaches to the treatment of malignant gliomas of the brain. In the past 5 years there have been literally hundreds of trials of new agents, combinations of old and new agents, and even new routes and approaches to the delivery of chemotherapy. In this review, the literature has been studied and the individual reports analyzed to evaluate the impact of the new findings on clinical management of the patient with malignant glioma of the brain. The major areas of progress include the addition of new drugs with varying modes of action, the use of combinations of drugs in a synergistic fashion, and the development of new routes of drug delivery. None of the advances has brought about the revolution in clinical care that is so eagerly sought, but clearly the amount of new knowledge gained by these studies helps in understanding how to use chemotherapy more effectively. Furthermore, the remarkable degree of interest and involvement in the use of chemotherapy promises that an even greater number of patients with malignant gliomas will be considered for vigorous and enthusiastic clinical management programs even if chemotherapy itself is not the key modality in the treatment of a specific patient.
Cell strains derived by culture of malignant glioma (astrocytoma grade III-IV) surgical specimens were tested for the production of DNA interstrand cross-links (ISC) and DNA-protein cross-links following treatment in vitro with 1-(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea, 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea (BCNU, carmustine), 1-(2-chloroethyl)-3-(2,6-dioxo-1-piperidyl)-1-nitrosourea (PCNU), cis-dichlorodiammineplatinum(II) (cisplatin), and 3,6-diaziridinyl-2,5-bis(carboethoxyamino)-1,4-benzoquinone (diaziquone). ISC and DNA-protein crosslinks were measured by means of the DNA alkaline elution technique. Large differences among the cell strains were observed in DNA cross-linking responses to individual agents. The DNA responses to the chloroethylnitrosoureas, cisplatin, and diaziquone were largely independent of each other, except for a weak correlation between ISC responses to chloroethylnitrosoureas were distributed bimodally, in accord with a phenotypic distinction between Mer+ and Mer- cells. ISC responses to cisplatin and diaziquone showed significant variation among cell strains, but the distributions were not bimodal. The results demonstrate the existence of diverse DNA cross-linking response patterns among cell strains from different tumors of a given histological type.
Using both immunohisto- and immunocytochemical techniques with periodate-lysine-paraformaldehyde (PLP) fixation, we have studied the distribution of Factor VIII-related antigen (FVIIIR:Ag) in 12 cases of tumors of the human central nervous system (CNS) and one sample of non-tumor brain tissue. FVIIIR:Ag was found both extracellularly and intracellularly. It was localized in the vascular lumen, between endothelial cells, and in the endothelial cell basement membrane. In the endothelial cell cytoplasm, FVIIIR:Ag was found in the endoplasmic reticulum, perinuclear space, and in intracytoplasmic vacuoles and vesicles. Characteristic of malignant tumors (six out of seven) was a strongly-positive dilated endoplasmic reticulum. This may reflect increased FVIIIR:Ag synthesis in the endothelial cells of malignant tumors. Only one of five benign tumors showed such staining. Six of 12 tumors and the non-tumor brain showed perinuclear FVIIIR:Ag. Both ad- and abluminal vesicles in the tumor endothelial cells contained FVIIIR:Ag suggesting that endocytosis, transcellular transport, and/or endocytosis, as well as FVIIIR:Ag synthesis occurs. The non-tumor brain showed normal capillary structure and very little FVIIIR:Ag immunoreactivity. The relationship of these FVIIIR:Ag abnormalities to the hypercoagulable state seen in some malignant brain tumor patients remains to be clarified.
The killing of human glioma by lymphokine activated killer (LAK) cells was studied. LAK cells generated by culturing recombinant interleukin-2 (IL-2) with human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) obtained from normal volunteers markedly lysed allogeneic glioma grown in tissue culture. Susceptibility of glioma to lysis by LAK cells was abrogated by pretreating the glioma cells with trypsin or chymotrypsin, but was unaffected by pretreatment with hydrocortisone, neuraminidase, glycosidases or sodium periodate. These results suggest that the cell surface determinant on human glioma cells responsible for its tumor selective lysis by LAK is a protein sensitive to trypsin and chymotrypsin.