Early Differentiating Mouse Astroglial Progenitors Share Common Protein Signatures with GL261 Glioma Cells

Abstract

Neural stem cells (NSC) biology is being applied to tumor research because these cells have been shown to share key properties with cancer cells. Gliomas represent the most common brain tumor, and neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPC) or early-differentiated cell type lineages may be on its origin. Here, we identified the developmental stage of the differentiation process of NSC into astrocytes that showed the highest number of tumorigenic similarities.NSPC were grown as neurospheres and astroglial differentiation was induced during 7 days in vitro (DIV). Cellular characterization was evaluated by specific neural markers at two developmental windows, i.e. NSPC/astrocyte progenitors from neurospheres until 3 DIV, and differentiating astrocytes thereafter. Predominance of immature Sox2-positive cells was verified in the first window and a prevalence of GFAP-positive cells in the second one. We then compared some tumor-related markers in GL261 glioma cells with such differentiating periods. The early progenitor cells (until 2 DIV) were those with the closest resemblances to the glioma cell line regarding BrdU incorporation, expression of microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 and of angiogenic factors (VEGF/VEGFR2), as well as S100B release. Our results suggest that early differentiating astroglial progenitors may be more susceptible to malignant transformation.