Glioma Cell and Astrocyte Co-cultures As a Model to Study Tumor-Tissue Interactions: A Review of Methods.

Astrocytes are a dominant cell type that envelopes the glioma bed. Typically, that is followed by formation of contacts between astrocytes and glioma cells and accompanied by change in astrocyte phenotype, a phenomenon known as a 'reactive astrogliosis.' Generally considered glioma-promoting, astrocytes have many controversial peculiarities in communication with tumor cells, which need thorough examination in vitro. This review is devoted to in vitro co-culture studies of glioma cells and astrocytes. Firstly, we list several fundamental works which allow understanding the modalities of co-culturing. Cell-to-cell interactions between astrocytes and glioma cells, the roles of astrocytes in tumor metabolism, and glioma-related angiogenesis are reviewed. In the review, we also discuss communications between glioma stem cells and astrocytes. Co-cultures of glioma cells and astrocytes are used for studying anti-glioma treatment approaches. We also enumerate surgical, chemotherapeutic, and radiotherapeutic methods assessed in co-culture experiments. In conclusion, we underline collisions in the field and point out the role of the co-cultures for neurobiological studies.

Pulsed Dendritic Cells for the Therapy of Experimental Glioma.

We obtained the morphologically, cytofluorometrically, and functionally mature dendritic cells from rats that were pulsed with antigens of the C6 glioma tissue extract. The concentrations of angiogenesis antigens (VEGF, VEGFR-1, and VEGFR-2) and periglioma zone proteins (GFAP, connexin 43, and BSAT1) in the pulsing extract were measured by ELISA. Our results drove us to a conclusion that despite mature phenotype of pulsed dendritic cell, the antigenic composition of glioma tissue extracts should be modified.