C6 cell line: the gold standard in glioma research

Abstract

Background: Glioblastoma multiforme is the most aggressive brain tumor with poor prognosis and an average survival of 1-2 years. Animal models that simulate the features of human glioma are the key to newer agents or therapeutic strategies. In order to establish such models, the C6 glioma cell line has been mostly used in neuro-oncology research.

Methods: In this narrative review, we systematically reviewed the international literature in order to retrieve and present the most important biological and molecular features of C6 cell line.

Results: Even though many cell lines have been developed, each cell line presents with slight differences from human glioma behavior. C6 cancer cell line is a rat glioma cell line, which can simulate in overall the high growth rate, the high vascularization, and the highly infiltrative character of glioblastoma multiforme.

Conclusions: Most of the C6 glioma research has been focused on testing a wide diversity of agents for their tumoricidal activity. C6 cell line is considered to be a safe and popular glioma model in the literature, providing a good simulation of glioblastoma multiforme. HIPPOKRATIA 2018, 22(3): 105-112.

Keywords: C6; cell line; glioblastoma multiforme; glioma; rat glioma model.

Figure 1. Flow chart of the recovered and analyzed studies in PubMed regarding articles involving therapeutic applications in terms of tumor growth, proliferation, invasiveness, migration, immunogenicity, angiogenesis, and genetic profile, focusing on literature of the period 2000-2018.