Research Article

Significance of Glioma Stem-Like Cells in the Tumor Periphery That Express High Levels of CD44 in Tumor Invasion, Early Progression, and Poor Prognosis in Glioblastoma

Figure 4

Characterization of sphere-forming cells (SFCs) as glioma stem-like cells. (a) Both SFC-1 and SFC-2 expressed much more CD133 and Nestin mRNA than those parent cells (PC-1 and PC-2). SFC-1 expressed CD44 at a significantly higher level than SFC-2. . (b) CD44 (green) and Nestin (red) were colocalized at the cell membrane in both SFC-1 and SFC-2. (c) Both SFC-1 and SFC-2 showed the capacity for multilineage differentiation into neurons (TUJ1; green) and astrocytes (GFAP; red). The nuclei are labeled with Hoechst (blue). (d) Both SFCs transplanted in the mouse brain generated invasive tumors (HE × 400), in which tumor cells in the periphery were positively stained for CD44 (bar 100 μm) (×400).
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