Differential P-Glycoprotein/CD31 Expression as Markers of Vascular Co-Option in Primary Central Nervous System Tumors

Abstract

Background: Vascular co-option is one of the main features of brain tumor progression. It is identified using histopathological analysis, but no antibody-specific markers were found, and no universally accepted histological features were defined. Methods: We employed double immunohistochemical stainings for CD31, P-gp, S100A10, and mitochondria on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded human samples of IDH-WT glioblastoma, IDH-mutant astrocytoma, and meningioma to study vascular co-option across different brain tumors and across normal, peritumoral, and intratumoral areas using the Aperio colocalization algorithm, which is a valid and robust method to handle and investigate large data sets. Results: The results have shown that (i) co-opted vessels could be recognized by the presence of metabolically overactive (evaluated as mitochondria expression) and P-gp+ or S100A10+ tumor cells surrounding CD31+ endothelial cells; (ii) vascular co-option occurs in the intratumoral area of meningioma and astrocytoma; and (iii) vascular co-option is prevalent in peritumoral glioblastoma area. Conclusions: The described approach identifies new markers for cellular components of the vessel wall and techniques that uncover the order and localization of vascularization mechanisms, which may contribute to developing new and possibly more effective therapeutic strategies.

Pediatric CNS tumors and 2021 WHO classification: what do oncologists need from pathologists?

“…The term “pediatric-type” has been introduced to distinguish these tumors from the adult-type counterpart. In fact, compared with adult-type diffuse high-grade gliomas, these tumors present different clinico-pathological characteristics, with diverse prognostic and therapeutic implications ( Annese et al, 2022 ; Tamma et al, 2023 ). The term “diffuse” reflects the growth pattern of these tumors, even if some cases of H3-wildtype and IDH-wildtype glioma and infant-type glioma may show a circumscribed growth pattern ( Guerreiro Stucklin et al, 2019 ; Clarke et al, 2020 ).…”

The Tumor Microenvironment in Classic Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in Responder and No-Responder Patients to First Line ABVD Therapy

“…Many experimental works demonstrated the crucial prognostic and predictive role exerted by lymphoid and monocytic compartments of the TME in CHL [18]. Different studies from our group highlighted the important roles of TME and angiogenesis in many other types of neoplasms, such as non-HLs [19,20,[20][21][22] and non-hematological tumors [23,24]. TME plays a fundamental role also in CHL, and shows complex interactions between H/RS cells and microenvironment cells [24].…”