C6 glioma cells do not express the gap junction protein connexin32 or its corresponding mRNA. Very low levels of connexin43 protein and mRNA, as well as weak intercellular coupling, have been detected. Studies investigating the role of gap junctions in cell proliferation and tumorigenesis have shown that C6 cells transfected with connexin43 have increased levels of intercellular coupling and re...

Insect baculoviruses are capable of infecting mammalian glial cells in the central nervous system. We investigated in the current study the feasibility of using the viruses as toxin gene vectors to eliminate malignant glioma cells in the brain. We first confirmed that glioma cells were permissive to baculovirus infection, with variable transduction efficiencies at 100 viral particles per cell a...

Effects of severe lactacidosis were analyzed in vitro by employment of C6 glioma cells and astrocytes from primary culture. The cells were suspended in a physiological medium, which was rendered acidotic by addition of lactic acid in rising concentrations. A pH range of 7.4-4.2 was studied under maintenance of isotonicity and a normal electrolyte concentration of the medium. Cell swelling was q...

Cancer stem cells have been isolated from human gliomas and many other parenchymal tumors. It was previously assumed that many established malignant cell lines also contain a rare subpopulation of stem cells. This study was designed to investigate the fraction of cancer stem cells in the C6 glioma cell line using clonal and population analyses, rather than isolating methods, which are based on ...

1. We tested whether pretreatment of reagents known to induce hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) may confer chemoresistance against cytotoxicity of 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea (BCNU) to rat C6 glioma cells. We also studied which cytotoxic mechanism(s) of chloroethylnitrosoureas could be neutralized by cobalt preconditioning. 2. Preconditioning of rat C6 glioma cells with cobalt chlorid...

Neuronal apoptosis may contribute to pathologic neuronal loss in certain disease states such as neurodegenerative diseases. Staurosporine (ST), a nonselective protein kinase inhibitor, has been shown to induce apoptosis in a variety of cells including nerve cell lines. In this study, we investigated the neuroprotective effect of sauchinone, which is a unique lignan from Saururus chinensis, on S...

Differential display polymerase chain reaction was used to identify genes regulated by the mood-stabilizing drug valproate (VPA). Four differentially displayed valproate-regulated gene fragments were isolated in rat cerebral cortex after i.p. injection of sodium VPA (300 mg/kg) for 3 weeks, and their expression was confirmed by Northern and slot blot analysis in rat cerebral cortex and C6 gliom...

Gliomas are the most common primary brain tumors affecting adults. Four grades of gliomas have been identified, namely, grades I-IV. Brain lipid-binding protein (BLBP), which functions in the intracellular transport of fatty acids, is expressed in all grades of human gliomas. The glioma cells that are cultured in vitro are grouped into the BLBP-positive and BLBP-negative cell lines. In the pres...

We examined the effects of gemcitabine, a novel nucleotide analogue, and vinorelbine, a semi-synthetic vinca alcaloid, in C6 glioma cell culture. We simultaneously monitored the modulation of its activity in combination with the telomerase inhibitory agent dimetilsülfoxid and with a specific cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitory agent Rofecoxib. The effects of the gemcitabine/ vinorelbine combination wer...