The prognostic significance of CD68 and kallikrein 6 for survival of brain cancer patients was investigated. We found that Kallikrein 6 was down-regulated in malignant glioma, but this differential expression did not have an impact on patient prognosis. In contrast, immunostaining of glioma tissue for CD68 and for cathepsin B may be used for prognosis of survival in these patients. This finding suggests that besides the known role of cathepsin B in invasion and angiogenesis, CD68 may be also associated with glioma progression.
COBISS.SI-ID: 3389503
We and others have published results of spontaneous transformation of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSC). Inspired by the recent focus on misidentification of cell lines, we did DNA fingerprinting and/or short tandem repeat analysis comparing the normal MSC with their transformed counterparts. The analysis showed that the transformed MSC in all tested laboratories were cross-contaminated with human cancer cell lines. Our observations underscore the need for stringent cell culture procedures when it comes to the use of primary cell cultures, including MSC, for therapeutic purposes.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2266703
Advanced drug targeting of tumor cells is often impossible when treating highly invasive and infiltrative tumours such as glioblastoma, because of tumour cell's high migration and invasiveness. Pluripotent human mesenchymal stem cells have been extensively studied and strategies are being proposed for treating incurable cancers. Their own intrinsic properties involving homing to GBM cells and immunomodulatory potency have been demonstrated and discussed in this review paper.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2201167
The theme of invited review paper published in “The Cancer Degradome” book at the end of 5-years long EU-6FP-Integrated Project CANCERDEGRADOME is a role of proteases in cancer. The authors with a considerable number of papers on the subject wrote a review on clinical use of lysosomal cysteine proteases, cathepsins and their inhibitors, cystatins.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2371185
Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) are stem cells with proven immunomodulary effects on tumours. In co-culture conditions it was confirmed that glioma cells increase proliferation and invasion of hMSC, whereas hMSC have the opposite effect on glioma cells. The unravelling of mechanisms of these cells interactions are essential for development of new cell-based therapies.
COBISS.SI-ID: 26412761