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.
To analyse the molecular background for that epiphenomenon LN229 glioma cells which harbour a TP53 mutation were transfected with a plasmid encoding p53 wild-type and an angiogenesis protein array was performed.
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.
Of 158 tumors with sufficient tissue, 110 (70 %) showed nuclear cMYC immunopositivity--most frequent (95 %, χ(2) p = 0.0248) and intense (mean 1.33, ANOVA p = 0.0179) in anaplastic astrocytomas versus glioblastomas (63 %) or low grade gliomas (74 %). cMYC expression associated with younger age as well as p53 immunopositivity (OR = 3.6, p = 0.0332) and mutant IDH1 (R132H) (OR = 7.4, p = 0.06) among malignant gliomas in our cohort.
These studies may suggest that mutation of p53 gene endows gliomas with an angiogenic phenotype by reducing thrombospondin-1 production as well as enhancing the angiogenesis inducers in the early phase of malignant progression.
Therefore, we investigated if polymorphisms of p53 were associated with an increased risk of meningioma and glioma and integrated the polymorphism analyses with detailed information on family history of cancer.
Although mutation or inactivation of the p53 tumor suppressor gene occurs at early stages in gliomas and is associated with tumor progression, many tumors including high-grade glioblastoma multiforme carry a functionally intact p53 gene.
We confirmed the association with glioma risk for variants within five genomic regions: 8q24.21 (CCDC26), 9p21.3 (CDKN2B-AS1), 11q23.3 (PHLDB1), 17p13.1 (TP53), and 20q13.33 (RTEL1).
Translation of these findings to patients with IDH1<sup>132H</sup> glioma harboring TP53 and ATRX loss could improve the therapeutic efficacy of radiotherapy and, consequently, patient survival.
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.
In conclusion, our meta-analysis, based on the combined data from published papers before May 2013, reveals no evidence for significant association between p53Arg72Pro polymorphism and glioma risk.
The frequency of mutations within glioma-associated TSG, such as TP53 and RB, suggests that defects in TGFbeta's inhibitory signaling pathway may have analogous effects in the progression to HD-GM, and TGFbeta's conversion to a mitogen.
This molecular classification model was compared to current histologic (WHO) and molecular pathologic (chromosome 1p and 19q deletions, p53 alterations, and Ki-67 expression) methods for glioma classification.
Risk factors for adult glioma in the San Francisco Bay Area include well-known demographic features such as age and race/ethnicity, and our previous studies indicated that these characteristics are associated with the TP53 mutation status of patients' tumors.