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Reduced connexin43 expression in high‐grade human brain glioma cells
Author(s) -
Huang RuoPan,
Hossain Mohammad Z.,
Sehgal Anil,
Boynton Alton L.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of surgical oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.201
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1096-9098
pISSN - 0022-4790
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-9098(199901)70:1<21::aid-jso4>3.0.co;2-0
Subject(s) - medicine , glioma , human brain , cancer research , glioblastoma , neuroscience , biology , psychiatry
Background and Objectives Connexin43 (cx43), a gap junction protein, is implicated in the suppression of tumor cell growth. Numerous cancer cells show a reduction or loss of cx43 expression compared to their normal counterparts. Our previous studies suggest that cx43 expression is decreased in a variety of human brain tumor cell lines. To further investigate the role of cx43 in the development of human gliomas, we performed the present study on human glioma grades I–IV. Methods Immunohistochemistry was performed on paraffin‐embedded tissue sections of 18 human gliomas to analyze the expression levels of cx43 in different stages of human gliomas. Results High levels of cx43 were observed in all normal brain tissue and in glioma grades I and II. In contrast, the expression of cx43 was very weak in grade III gliomas and almost undetectable in grade IV gliomas. Conclusions Our data support the hypothesis that reduction of cx43 is involved in the progression of human gliomas. J. Surg. Oncol. 1999;70:21–24. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.