Endothelial cell transdifferentiation of human glioma stem progenitor cells in vitro

The transdifferentiation of normal stem cells in many kinds of tissues or organs has been studied. However, whether glioma stem cells can transdifferentiate is seldom reported. Meanwhile, the mechanism of angiogenesis in tumors is in disputations, and it is still unknown that whether glioma stem/progenitor cells (GSPCs) participate into angiogenesis in glioma. In this study, we cultivated GSPCs in endothelial differentiation medium for 10 days and found they present to be the typical “flagstone” appearance of vascular endothelial cell (VEC); when cultured on Matrigel, GSPCs gradually formed tubular-like structures in vitro, and cells, which formed the tubular-like structures, showed similar ultrastructural characteristics of VEC under a transmission electron microscope. Furthermore, when cultured in hypoxia or oxygen–glucose deprivation for 4 h, GSPCs transcribed and expressed molecular markers of VEC, including CD31, CD34 and vWF. These results indicated that GSPCs could participate into angiogenesis of glioma by transdifferentiating into VEC-like cells.