PDGF and PDGF receptors in glioma

Abstract

The family of platelet-derived growth factors (PDGFs) plays a number of critical roles in normal embryonic development, cellular differentiation, and response to tissue damage. Not surprisingly, as it is a multi-faceted regulatory system, numerous pathological conditions are associated with aberrant activity of the PDGFs and their receptors. As we and others have shown, human gliomas, especially glioblastoma, express all PDGF ligands and both the two cell surface receptors, PDGFR-α and -β. The cellular distribution of these proteins in tumors indicates that glial tumor cells are stimulated via PDGF/PDGFR-α autocrine and paracrine loops, while tumor vessels are stimulated via the PDGFR-β. Here we summarize the initial discoveries on the role of PDGF and PDGF receptors in gliomas and provide a brief overview of what is known in this field.

Ki-67 is a Valuable Prognostic Factor in Gliomas: Evidence from a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

“…The highly invasive nature of this tumor prevents complete tumor resection and causes significant neurologic morbidity and mortality (Kouri et al, 2012;Zhao et al, 2013). Despite advances in diagnostic and therapeutic techniques, the prognosis for most glioma patients remains dismal (Nazarenko et al, 2012;Westermark, 2012).…”

Characteristics of the expression of KAI1/CD82 and PDGFRβ and their impact on glioma progression

“…A lot of data suggested that the PDGF receptor activates a number of downstream signal transduction pathways including PI3K/Akt/mTOR and Ras/ Raf/MAPK pathways and may play an important role in both normal development and tumorigenesis of the CNS [19,20]. Overexpression of PDGF ligands and receptors are frequent events in human gliomas regardless of the tumor grade.…”

“…A number of alternations in different genes have been identified in human gliomas and some of them are involved in glioma progression [8]. Among the growth factors, the platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) has been well described in glioblastomas [19,20].…”

“…Grade I/II astrocytomas are slow-growing tumors without aggressive features, whereas grade III and IV glio mas possess a malignant phenotype associated with high proliferative activity and vascular formation [18,19]. Glioblastoma (grade IV) is one of the most aggressive and deadly malignant brain tumors with an average survival time of 15 months after diagnosis [8,13,18,20]. Most primary glioblastomas develop de novo but some parts of diffuse astrocytomas grade II and III may progress to grade IV as secon dary glioblastomas [12,25].…”

“…Most of them are characterized by their extensive invasion into the brain parenchyma [17,19,20]. Grade I/II astrocytomas are slow-growing tumors without aggressive features, whereas grade III and IV glio mas possess a malignant phenotype associated with high proliferative activity and vascular formation [18,19].…”