Expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein, vimentin, fibronectin, and N-myc oncoprotein in primary human brain tumor cell explants

Abstract

Cultured cells of explants from 23 human gliomas (seven astrocytomas, eleven anaplastic astrocytomas, three ependymal tumors and two medulloblastomas) were studied to examine cell morphology and expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), vimentin, fibronectin, and N-myc oncoprotein. The most common antigenic phenotype consisted of cells that were GFAP-positive and fibronectin-positive. Both low and high grade astrocytomas retained GFAP expression after several passages in vitro. The establishment of glial tumors in vitro may not necessarily result in loss of GFAP expression early in passage nor is expression of GFAP and fibronectin mutually exclusive. N-myc oncoprotein was seen in only two specimens, one anaplastic astrocytoma and one ependymoma.