No abstract

Object This study investigated the specific preoperative MRI features of patients with intracranial meningiomas that correlate with pathological grade and provide appropriate preoperative planning. Methods From 2006 to 2012, 120 patients (36 men and 84 women, age range 20–89 years) with newly diagnosed symptomatic intracranial meningiomas undergoing resection were retrospectively analyzed in terms of radiological features of preoperative MRI. There were 90 WHO Grade I and 30 WHO Grade II or III meningiomas. The relationships between MRI features and WHO histopathological grade were analyzed and scored quantitatively. Results According to the results of multivariate logistic regression analysis, age ≥ 75 years, indistinct tumorbrain interface, positive capsular enhancement, and heterogeneous tumor enhancement were identified factors in the prediction of advanced histopathological grade. The prediction model was quantified as a scoring scale: 2 × (age) + 5 × (tumor-brain interface) + 3 × (capsular enhancement) + 2 × (tumor enhancement). The calculated score correlated positively with the probability of high-grade meningioma. Conclusions This scoring approach may be useful for clinicians in determining therapeutic strategy and in surgical planning for patients with intracranial meningiomas.

Human malignant glioma cells are characterized by local invasion. In the present study, we investigated the role of osteopontin (OPN) in the invasiveness of human glioma cells isolated from grade IV tumors. We found that the expression levels of OPN in these cell lines paralleled matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) expression and cell invasiveness potential. When U87MG glioma cells (with a high-OPN expression level) were stably transformed with specific small hairpin RNA to knock down OPN expression, MMP-2 secretion, cell invasiveness, and tumor growth in implanted brains were dramatically reduced. Conversely, forced expression of OPN in GBM-SKH glioma cells (which expressed OPN at a low level) increased MMP-2 secretion, enhanced cell invasiveness, and increased tumor growth in a rodent xenograft model. Expression of OPN was associated with increased expression of vimentin and decreased expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein. Treatment of glioma cells with 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine (5-aza-dC) suppressed OPN expression in a concentration-dependent manner. Suppression of OPN expression by 5-aza-dC was associated with reductions in MMP-2 secretion, vimentin expression, cell invasion, intravasation, and tumor growth. These data suggest that OPN may play important roles in regulating cell invasion in glioma cells and that 5-aza-dC may serve as a therapeutic agent for human gliomas.