Do Human Oligodendroglial and Astroglial Tumors Derive from Mature Oligondendrocytes and Astrocytes, or from Precursor Glial Cells ?
Camby, I[1]; Bruyneel, E[2]; Geurts, A[3]; Decaestecker, C[1]; Sweep, F[3]; Brotchi, J[1]; Mareel, M[2]; Kiss, R[1]; Salmon, I[1] [1]Universit Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium; [2]University Hospital ghent, Belgium; [3]University Hospital Nijmegen, Netherlands We recently set up a computer-assisted microscope system to quantify the proportion of cells with oligodendroglial as opposed to astroglial morphonuclear phenotypes in mixed oligoastrocytomas and glioblastomas. In the present study we show that of a series of 108 gliomas (including 76 WHO grade II and III astrogliomas and 32 WHO grade II and III oligodendrogliomas), 33 (31%) were ‘contaminated’ by at least 20% of a second glial cell subpopulation. We hypothesized that this contamination could relate to the fact that astrogliomas and oligodendrogliomas originate from glial precursor cells and not from mature astrocytes or mature oligodendrocytes. This hypothesis is in accordance with the monoclonality of these tumors. We made use of th
