Our results suggest that with respect to p53 gene status, glioma cell lines usually resemble the original tumors and may, therefore, be suitable for studying the biological changes associated with p53 mutations in glial tumors.
We determined the DNA sequence of the conserved regions of the p53 gene (exons 5 to 9) in the tumor tissues and lymphocytes of two patients with glioma-polyposis and found that mutations did occur as independent tumor-specific alterations but did not involve the germ line of these patients, suggesting that p53 may play a role in progression but not initiation of the disease.
To our knowledge, this is the first report of an altered p53 gene in a low-grade nonrecurrent glial tumor and highlights the presence of further checks and balances on the control of cell proliferation and other malignancy-associated phenotypes, even in an already-established tumor.
Germline p53 mutations are frequent in patients with multifocal glioma, glioma and another primary malignancy, and glioma associated with a family history of cancer, particularly if these factors are combined.
These results indicate that p53 plays a tumour suppressor role in low grade and high grade human astrocytomas and raise the possibility of the involvement of p53 in glioma cell differentiation in vitro.
These findings suggest that a genetic factor may be responsible for the clustering of glial tumors in this family, but it is unlikely that the genetic alteration is mutation of the p53 gene.
In contrast to results in other types of malignant tumors, where up to 40% of patients have high serum titers of p53-aAb, no such antibodies were found in patients with malignant cerebral glioma despite the presence of mutated or alterated p53 protein in the primary tumors.
As mutations of the p53 tumor suppressor gene represent an early event in the development of gliomas, we attempted to determine whether both components of gliosarcomas share identical alterations of the p53 gene.
More than 70% of p53 mutations observed during glioma progression are G:C-->A:T transitions, predominantly at CpG sites, i.e. likely to be produced by deamination of 5-mcC or related spontaneous mechanisms.
This suggested that the p16/p15 and the p53 gene alterations and their combinations in at least some glioma cell lines reflected those in the primary glioma tissues.
Bcl-2 has been shown to inhibit apoptosis triggered by wild-type p53 and an inverse correlation between Bcl-2 expression and p53 mutation has been observed in breast cancer and glioma.
When p53 alterations is seen as an indicator for different pathogenic pathways in glioma formation, this study gives evidence for a difference between anaplastic astrocytoma and glioblastoma.
To study the effect of exogenous wild-type p53 on glioma cell growth, human glioma lines U251 MG, U87 MG and A172 were infected with an adenovirus vector expressing either wild-type p53 or bacterial lacZ.
Two human glioma cell lines (U-251 MG and U-373 MG) that express mutant p53 protein and two (U-87 MG and EFC-2) that express wild-type p53 protein were used.