The CD133 expression signatures in GC expression profiles were positively correlated with those of brain tumors expressing CD133 and human embryonic stem cells, emphasizing the transcriptional similarities across stem cell-related expression signatures.
CD133, a putative stem cell marker in normal tissue and malignant brain tumors, enhances multidrug resistant gene 1 (MDR1) expression following chemotherapy in adult malignant glioblastomas.
A transmembrane protein CD133 has been implicated as a marker of stem-like glioma cells and predictor for therapeutic response in malignant brain tumours.
Previous reports have implicated CD133-expressing cells as CSCs in brain tumors, while those expressing CD15 have been shown to propagate medulloblastoma.
Brain tumor xenografts initiated from glioblastoma (GBM) CD133(+) tumor stem-like cells (TSCs) are composed of TSC and non-TSC subpopulations, simulating the phenotypic heterogeneity of GBMs in situ.
TSCs were confirmed to express the brain tumor stem cell marker CD133, and on in vitro differentiation gave rise to cells expressing neuronal or glial markers.
CD133 is extensively used as a surface marker to identify and isolate glioma-initiating cells (GICs) from malignant brain tumors; however, instances of CD133(-) cells exhibiting similar properties have also been reported.
Our data suggest that the CD133(+) cell subpopulation evokes most of the lysophospholipid response within brain tumors through a combined regulation of S1P/LPA cell surface receptors signaling and by MT1-MMP.
Here, we show that human CSF contains specific membrane particles that carry prominin-1/CD133, a neural stem cell marker implicated in brain tumors, notably glioblastoma.
Thus, our findings do not suggest that CD133 expression is required for brain tumor initiation, but that it may be involved during brain tumor progression.
Together, these data show that L1CAM is required for maintaining the growth and survival of CD133(+) glioma cells both in vitro and in vivo, and L1CAM may represent a cancer stem cell-specific therapeutic target for improving the treatment of malignant gliomas and other brain tumors.
The fraction of tumour cells expressing CD133 (Prominin-1), a marker for both neural stem cells and brain cancer stem cells, is enriched after radiation in gliomas.
Only the CD133+ brain tumour fraction contains cells that are capable of tumour initiation in NOD-SCID (non-obese diabetic, severe combined immunodeficient) mouse brains.