Experimental Research On The Chemotherapeutic Sensitivity Of Brain Tumor Stem Cells

PURPOSE To explore the relationship between the chemother-apeutic sensitivity of brain tumor stem cell (BTSC) and patient's sex, age, the size and pathological grade of tumour, and the expression of drug resistance enzyme in brain tumour, so as to establish methods that can predict the sensitivity of chemotherapeutic agents in BTSCs and supply some instructions that can determine an individual chemotherapy protocol.METHODS Fresh specimens of neuropithelial tumours were obtained and then cultivated primarily into BTSCs and brain tumour cells (BTCs) ; the sensitivity of Vumon-26 (Vm-26) , bischloro-nitrosourea (BCNU) and diamminedichloroplatinum (DDP) in BTSCs and BTC were contrasted by drug sensitivity testing in vitro (MTT assay) ; The expressions of TopoIIα, MGMT and LRP were examined in BTSCs by immunofluoresce histochemistry qualitatively and in tumours by immunoenzyme histochemistry quantitatively.RESULTS The sensitive rates of Vm-26, BCNU and DDP in BTSCs were 39.3%, 64.2% and 16.7% respectively, BCNU ranked the first. The sensitive rate in BTSCs was lower than that in BTCs. The pathological grade of tumour was correlated with the sensitivity of Vm-26 and BCNU in BTSCs, the expressions of MGMT and LRP were correlated with the sensitivity of BCNU and DDP in BTSCs. CONCLUSIONS Patient's sex, age and the size of tumour can't be regarded as referential factors when selecting chemotherapeutic plan for an individual patient, but the pathological grade of tumour can be conducted as reference of the part of agents. Colorimetric MTT assay can be used to screen for chemotherapeutic agents. The expression of MGMT and LRP immunohistochemically may predict the most promising agents for the chemotherapy of brain tumour.