CD133 expression is associated with small round blue cell tumour morphology in human CNS neoplasms .

Jens Schittenhelm , Perikles Simon , Patrick Nikolaus Harter , Cornelia Zachskorn , Holger Schlaszus , Frauke Röttger , Monika Winkels , Michael Weller , Richard Meyermann , Michel Mittelbronn (1)

1 Neurological Institue

Aims: CD133 is considered as a marker for brain tumour initiating cells. However, most data about CD133 is derived from animal or in vitro studies. The aim of our study was to characterize CD133 expression, distribution and morphological features of CD133+ cells in primary and secondary human CNS neoplasms. Methods and results: Tumours were analyzed by realtime RT-PCR, western blot, flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry. Our results show that only small round blue cell tumours (SRBCT) exhibit strong and consistent CD133 expression. Interestingly, glioblastomas, large cell carcinomas or sarcomas were negative for CD133. Only single glioblastomas with focal small cell component exhibited CD133 immunoreactivity in the SRBCT component. In addition, CD133 expression did not correlate with the expression of other markers associated with stem cell differentiation including CD15 or nestin. Conclusions: This indicates that CD133 expression in human CNS neoplasms may be independent from the grade of malignancy but strongly correlates with SRBCT morphology. Together with recent findings showing that CD133 is regulated by hypoxia and CD133- cells exhibiting also stem cell properties, our data strongly questions the suitability of CD133 as a brain tumour stem cell marker in vivo.

Mots clés: Medicine

Jens Schittenhelm, Perikles Simon, Patrick Nikolaus Harter, Cornelia Zachskorn, Holger Schlaszus, et al.. CD133 expression is associated with small round blue cell tumour morphology in human CNS neoplasms .. Histopathology, 2011, ⟨10.1111/j.1365-2559.2011.03802.x⟩. ⟨hal-00626289⟩