of the Max - MDC

Structure of the Group
Group Leader
Prof. Dr. Helmut Kettenmann
Assistant to the
Group Leader
Meino Gibson
Scientists
Dr. Rainer Glass
Dr. Katrin Faerber
Dr. Christiane Nolte
(part-time)
Dr. Daniel Reyes-Haro
Dr. Brigitte Haas
Dr. Darko Markovic
Graduate Students
Bruno Benedetti
Giselle Cheung
Sridhar Chirasani
Jitender Kumar
Jochen Müller
Marta Maglione
Stefanie Seifert
Technical Assistants
Rainer Kröber
(for the department)
Brigitte Gerlach (part-time)
Irene Haupt
Karin Heufelder
Michaela Seeger-Zografakis
(part-time)
Secretariat
Birgit Jarchow
Figure 3. Neural Stem cells accumulate at gliomas
Glioma cells were injected into the brain of a mouse and formed a
tumor. The glioma cells can be recognized by their permanent red
label. Nestin-positive stem cells can be recognized by their green
colour since we used a transgenic mouse line with nestin-promoter
driven expression of the green fluorescent protein. The stem cells can
be recognized at their normal location, the subventricular zone and
associated with the red tumor cells.
Do stem cells influence glioma cells?
We recently observed that gliomas attract neural precursor
cells from the germinal zone. These cells migrate over large
distances and enwrap the tumor yet they do not originate
from the tumor proper as was previously suspected. This
intrinsic anti-tumorigenic response is strongly related to
age in an animal model and occurs only during youth when
neural precursor cells are more active. Consequently, in
older animals this interaction does not occur. The precursor
cells inhibit tumor growth and addition of exogenous precursors
prolongs the survival rate in older animals. We are
now interested in the factors by which glioma cells attract
the stem cells to the tumor and in the factors by which stem
cells influence glioma growth. We have therefore developed
in vitro assays (funded by Helmholtz-Ideenwettbewerb).
Selected Publications
Glass R, Synowitz M, Kronenberg G, Markovic D, Wang LP, Gast
D, Kiwit J, Kempermann G and Kettenmann, H. (2005). Gliomainduced
attraction of endogenous neural precursor cells is associated
with improved survival, J. Neurosci., 25, 2637-2646.
Heidemann A C, Schipke C G, Kettenmann H. (2005)
Extracellular application of nicotinic Acid adenine dinucleotide
phosphate induces Ca 2+ signaling in astrocytes in situ, J. Biol.
Chem., 280, 35630-35640.
Haas B, Schipke C G, Peters O, Söhl G, Willecke K. and
Kettenmann H. (2006) Activity-dependent ATP-waves in the
Mouse Neocortex are Independent from Astrocytic Calcium
Waves. Cereb Cortex, 16, 237-46.
Synowitz M, Glass R, Faerber K, Markovic D, Kronenberg G,
Herrmann K, Schnermann J, Nolte C, van Rooijen N, Kiwit J, and
Kettenmann H. (2006) A1 Adenosine Receptors in Microglia
Control Glioblastoma-Host Interaction. Cancer Res 66,
8550-8557.
Hanisch U-K and Kettenmann K (2007) Microglia – active sensor
and versatile effector cells in the normal and pathologic brain,
Nature Neuroscience, 10,1387-1394.
Pocock, J M and Kettenmann H. (2007) Neurotransmitter
receptors on microglia, Trends Neurosci., 30, 527-535.
Function and Dysfunction of the Nervous System 163