International experience in the development of patient-derived xenograft models of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma

PURPOSE

Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma is the most aggressive form of high grade glioma in children with no effective therapies. There have been no improvements in survival in part due poor understanding of underlying biology, and lack of representative in vitro and in vivo models. Recently, it has been found feasible to use both biopsy and autopsy tumors to generate cultures and xenograft models.

METHODS

To further model development, we evaluated the collective international experience from 8 collaborating centers to develop DIPG pre-clinical models from patient-derived autopsies and biopsies. Univariate and multivariate analysis was performed to determine key factors associated with the success of in vitro and in vivo PDX development.

RESULTS

In vitro cultures were successfully established from 57% of samples (84.2% of biopsies and 38.2% of autopsies). Samples transferred in DMEM media were more likely to establish successful culture than those transported in Hibernate A. In vitro cultures were more successful from biopsies (84.2%) compared with autopsies (38.2%) and as monolayer on laminin-coated plates than as neurospheres. Primary cultures successfully established from autopsy samples were more likely to engraft in animal models than cultures established from biopsies (86.7% vs. 47.4%). Collectively, tumor engraftment was more successful when DIPG samples were directly implanted in mice (68%), rather than after culturing (40.7%).

CONCLUSION

This multi-center study provides valuable information on the success rate of establishing patient-derived pre-clinical models of DIPG. The results can lead to further optimization of DIPG model development and ultimately assist in the investigation of new therapies for this aggressive pediatric brain tumor.

The HIN-200 family: More than interferon-inducible genes?

The HIN-200 family was initially grouped together based on their hemopoietic expression, interferon-inducibility, nuclear localization, and characteristic 200 amino-acid domains. In this review, we performed a comprehensive search of genome databases and determined the location of previously characterized and predicted genes within the human, mouse, and rat HIN-200 loci. Several novel proteins were predicted in the mouse and rat. We also discuss recent advances in our understanding of this family of proteins and highlight the most important findings. In addition to a role in interferon biology, there is now good evidence supporting a role for these proteins as regulators of cell proliferation and differentiation. The activity of HIN-200 proteins is not restricted to the hemopoietic system as they are expressed and can function in a variety of other cells and tissues. The importance of HIN-200 proteins in disease now is beginning to be understood as they appear to be involved in autoimmunity and may act as tumor suppressor proteins.