Cell-Population Dynamics in Diffuse Gliomas during Gliomagenesis and Its Impact on Patient Survival.

Diffuse gliomas continue to be an important problem in neuro-oncology. To solve it, studies have considered the issues of molecular pathogenesis from the intratumoral heterogeneity point. Here, we carried out a comparative dynamic analysis of the different cell populations' content in diffuse gliomas of different molecular profiles and grades, considering the cell populations' functional properties and the relationship with patient survival, using flow cytometry, immunofluorescence, multiparametric fluorescent in situ hybridization, polymerase chain reaction, and cultural methods. It was shown that an increase in the IDH-mutant astrocytomas and oligodendrogliomas malignancy is accompanied by an increase in stem cells' proportion and mesenchymal cell populations' appearance arising from oligodendrocyte-progenitor-like cells with cell plasticity and cells' hypoxia response programs' activation. In glioblastomas, malignancy increase is accompanied by an increase in both stem and definitive cells with mesenchymal differentiation, while proneuronal glioma stem cells are the most likely the source of mesenchymal glioma stem cells, which, in hypoxic conditions, further give rise to mesenchymal-like cells. Clinical confirmation was a mesenchymal-like cell and mesenchymal glioma stem cell number, and the hypoxic and plastic molecular programs' activation degree had a significant effect on relapse-free and overall survival. In general, we built a multi-vector model of diffuse gliomas' pathogenetic tracing up to the practical plane.

Terahertz spectroscopy of gelatin-embedded human brain gliomas of different grades: a road toward intraoperative THz diagnosis.

We applied terahertz (THz)-pulsed spectroscopy to study ex vivo the refractive index and absorption coefficient of human brain gliomas featuring different grades, as well as perifocal regions containing both intact and edematous tissues. Glioma samples from 26 patients were considered and analyzed according to further histological examination. In order to fix tissues for the THz measurements, we applied gelatin embedding, which allows for sustaining their THz response unaltered, as compared to that of the freshly excised tissues. We observed a statistical difference between the THz optical constants of intact tissues and gliomas of grades I to IV, while the response of edema was similar to that of tumor. The results of this paper justify a potential of THz technology in the intraoperative label-free diagnosis of human brain gliomas for ensuring the gross-total resection.