Cell Systems
Volume 12, Issue 3, 17 March 2021, Pages 248-262.e7
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Article
TAMEP are brain tumor parenchymal cells controlling neoplastic angiogenesis and progression

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2021.01.002Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Uncovering brain tumor-associated cells with a myeloid expression profile (TAMEP)

  • TAMEP appear as a myeloid population but do not derive from microglia or bone marrow

  • TAMEP originate from local progenitors activated by brain tumors

  • TAMEP promote tumor expansion by enhancing vessel density

Summary

Aggressive brain tumors like glioblastoma depend on support by their local environment and subsets of tumor parenchymal cells may promote specific phases of disease progression. We investigated the glioblastoma microenvironment with transgenic lineage-tracing models, intravital imaging, single-cell transcriptomics, immunofluorescence analysis as well as histopathology and characterized a previously unacknowledged population of tumor-associated cells with a myeloid-like expression profile (TAMEP) that transiently appeared during glioblastoma growth. TAMEP of mice and humans were identified with specific markers. Notably, TAMEP did not derive from microglia or peripheral monocytes but were generated by a fraction of CNS-resident, SOX2-positive progenitors. Abrogation of this progenitor cell population, by conditional Sox2-knockout, drastically reduced glioblastoma vascularization and size. Hence, TAMEP emerge as a tumor parenchymal component with a strong impact on glioblastoma progression.

Keywords

progenitor cells
rain
glioma
glioblastoma
brain tumor parenchyma
brain tumor microenvironment
tumor-associated macrophages
microglia
myeloid cells
brain tumor
angiogenesis

Cited by (0)

13

These authors contributed equally

14

Present address: Department of Neurosurgery, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430060, China

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