经过过去20年的努力,癌基因和抑癌基因在神经胶质瘤形成及发展中的核心地位已达共识。然而,在生命科学研究突飞猛进、肿瘤诊断与治疗手段日新月异的今天,我们尚未确立这些核心分子在胶质瘤中作用的靶标,因此,胶质瘤的细胞起源-这一决定着人类最终克服胶质瘤的根本问题再度引起人类的关注。
The tumor stem cell theory supposed that tumor stem cells are the origin of tumor abnormal proliferation, invasion, metastasis, drug resistance and recurrence. As the theory is put forward, it redefines the functions of classic stem cells in tumorigenesis. It is a great event for recent studies on glioma initiating cells as brain tumor stem cells were identified and isolated successfully. A lot of evidence from experiments in vivo and in vitro demonstrates that brain tumor stem calls might play an important role in glioma tumorigenesis. In this review, we discuss the relationship between tumor stem cells and tumorigenesis, and the research on the correlation between brain tumor stem cells and glioma genesis.