Mesenchymal stem cells show little tropism for the resting and differentiated cancer stem cell-like glioma cells.

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Intrinsic resistance of glioma cells to radiation and chemotherapy is currently hypothesized to be partially attributed to the existence of cancer stem cells. Emerging studies suggest that mesenchymal stem cells may serve as a potential carrier for delivery of therapeutic genes to disseminated glioma cells. However, the tropism character of mesenchymal stem cells for cancer stem cell-like glioma cells has rarely been described. In this study, we obtained homologous bone marrow-derived (BM-) and adipose tissue-derived (AT-) mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), fibroblast, and cancer stem cell-like glioma cells (CSGCs) from tumor-bearing mice, and compared the tropism character of BM- and AT-MSCs for CSGCs with various form of existence. To characterize the cell proliferation and differentiation, the spheroids of CSGCs were cultured on the surface of the substrate with different stiffness, combined with or withdrew basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) in medium. Our results showed that the CSGCs during the process of cell proliferation, but not in resting and differentiated status, display strong tropism characteristics on both BM- and AT-MSCs, as well as the expression of their cell chemokine factors which mediate cell migration. If the conclusion is further confirmed, it may expose a fatal flaw of MSCs as tumor-targeted delivery of therapeutic agent

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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