Research progress in brain tumor stem cell theory

ABSTRACT

Pubmed Database was undertaken to identify relevant articles of brain tumor stem cells published from January 2000 to January 2008. Books on stem cells and brain tumor stem cells were retrieved. The data were selected primarily, 39 articles related to brain tumor stem cells were selected. Of the 39 inclusive articles, 8 were on review of the brain tumor stem cells theory, 31 were about the research and experiment of brain tumor stem cells. Data synthesis shows that the CD133+ cells isolated from brain tumor have the stem cell-like properties of endless cell proliferation, uncontrolled self-renewal and multi-directional differentiation, but brain tumor stem cells have more vigorous capacity to increase than normal neural stem cells. The brain tumor stem cells express the same gene product as the normal neural stem cells, but the nuclear type of the brain tumor stem cells is abnormal. Brain tumor stem cells maybe the products of gene mutation from the normal neural stem cells. Brain tumor stem cells are the bad seeds of brain cancer, and play a key role in the progress of tumorigenesis, growth, invasion, metastasis, drug resistance and recurrence. Thus, studies on brain cancer stem cells have crucial effects on analyzing the mechanism of occurrence and development, as well as radical cure of brain tumor.