Astrocytes feed glioblastoma and promote tumor growth

A brain-supporting cell called astrocytes has long been found around glioblastoma, leading scientists to believe that these cells have gathered to help fight tumors, but recent studies have found that these cells instead help cancer grow

Frank Winkler, a neurooncologist at Heidelberg University Hospital who was not involved in the study, said: "We misunderstood astrocytes to think they were protecting the brain, but in fact they were helping tumors

Astrocytes regulate the flow of matter through the blood-brain barrier, maintaining the neural microenvironment, and, because cholesterol produced in other parts of the body cannot pass through the blood-brain barrier, astrocytes produce enough cholesterol to support the brain

The researchers first implanted mouse glioblastoma cells into 6 wild-type mice and another 6 mice lacking astrocytes

The researchers next looked at how astrocytes affect the cancer's metabolism

To understand the effect of cholesterol synthesized by astrocytes on the pathogenesis of glioblastoma, the researchers cultured

To investigate the mechanism by which this happens, the researchers removed the astrocyte gene encoding ABCA1, a protein that helps cholesterol motivate in the brain, and then cultured

In another mouse experiment, the researchers blocked the flow of cholesterol into glioblastoma tumors, finding that this caused the tumor to shrink in size and also extended the survival of

At present, the treatment of glioblastoma is to kill cancer cells through chemotherapy and radiotherapy, as well as immunotherapy to enhance the body's own defenses