Glioblastoma is one of the most aggressive and lethal tumors of the human brain. The current standard of care includes surgical resection of the tumor followed by radiation1 plus concomitant and adjuvant administration of temozolomide2. Even with this multi-therapeutic approach, tumor recurrence is inevitable3. This is partly due to the extensive migratory nature of the tumor cells, which invade the brain parenchyma creating multiple finger-like projections within the brain4 that make complete resection unlikely.
In recent years, it has become evident that the aggressiveness of glioblastoma is due, in part, to the presence of a population of cancer stem cells within the tumor mass5,6, which exhibit high migratory potential7,8, resistance to chemotherapy and radiation9,10 and the ability to form secondary tumors11. GSCs are capable of recapitulating original polyclonal tumors when xenografted to nude mice5.
Despite the wealth of knowledge regarding the genetic background of glioblastomas, studies on glioma cell (GC) migration are currently hindered by a lack of efficient in vitro or in vivo migration models. Notably, while glioma cell-axonal interactions modulated by cellular and environmental factors are a core component of glioma invasion, to our knowledge there is currently no experimental system with the ability to model these interactions12,13,14. To address this deficiency, we developed an ex vivo culture system of primary hGCs co-cultured with purified DRG axon-oligodendrocytes that results in elevated expression of differentiated tumor markers as well as extensive migration and interaction of hGCs with myelinated and non-myelinated fibers. This ex vivo platform, due to its compartmentalized layout, is suitable for testing the effects of novel therapeutics on hGC migration patterns.,