摘要
The last fifteen years have seen the application of the cancer stem cell hypothesis to tumors of the central nervous system,in particular to high grade glioma(HGG),the most aggressive and common brain cancer in adults.Seminal studies have shown that cancer stem cells(alternatively named tumor-initiating cells)are capable of self-renew and multipotency,similar to their normal counterpart.More importantly they give rise to tumors that closely mimic the phenotype and genotype of human HGG.The identification of neurogenic niches in adult rodent and human brain has further reinforced the hypothesis that HGG might derive from the malignant transformation occurring in these areas,especially in the sub-ventricular zone(SVZ),the largest and most well characterised stem cell niche.Following from evidence of animal model studies supporting this hypothesis,recently we investigated the role of the SVZ in neuro-oncogenesis using tissue material derived from HGG patients.We also described response to conventional chemo-therapies of cancer stem cells isolated from the SVZ and the tumor mass(T)of the same patients and reconstructed tumor evolution.In this review,such findings will be discussed in the context of the current literature on the biology of the SVZ in the normal and disease brain.
