Source: Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Date: July 6, 2010
Summary:
In their latest research, scientists of the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany, have demonstrated how the brain's own stem cells and precursor cells control the growth of glioblastomas. Of all brain tumors, glioblastomas are among the most common and most aggressive. Dr. Sridhar Reddy Chirasani, Professor Helmut Kettenmann and Dr. Rainer Glass have now shown in cell culture and mouse model experiments just how the body's own protective mechanism they identified in an earlier study, actually works (Brain, July 6, 2010).
Glioblastomas are brain tumors that are most common in adults in their mid-fifties or early sixties. The causes for developing the disease are not yet known. Researchers assume that misdirected neural stem cells / precursor cells mutate into cancer cells and can form glioblastomas.
