Abstract
TERT promoter gene mutations are highly recurrent in malignant glioma. However, little information exists regarding their presence in experimental brain tumor models. To better characterize systems in which TERT mutation studies could be appropriately modeled experimentally, the TERT promoter was examined by conventional sequencing in primary brain tumor initiating cells (BTIC), two matched recurrent BTIC lines, a panel of established malignant glioma cell lines, and two meningioma cell lines. Telomerase gene expression was examined by quantitative PCR. We found that all glioblastoma BTIC lines harbored a TERT mutation, which was retained in two patient-matched recurrent BTIC. The TERT C228T or C250T mutation was found in 33/35 (94 %) of established malignant glioma cell lines and both meningioma cell lines examined. Brain tumor cell lines expressed variably high telomerase levels. Thus, a high percentage of glioma cell lines, as well as two meningioma cell lines, harbors TERT mutations. These data characterize tractable, accessible models with which to further explore telomerase biology in these tumor types.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Dr. Ravi Uppaluri for reviewing this manuscript and Dr. Jeffrey Atkinson for technical assistance. This work was supported by NIH grant K08NS092912 (G.P.D.), NIH Grant K08NS081105 (A.H.K.), American Cancer Society-Institutional Research Grant (A.H.K., G.P.D), the Duesenberg Research Fund (A.H.K.), the Physician-Scientist Training Program at Washington University School of Medicine (T.M.J.), and the Brain Science Foundation (I.F.D.).
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Johanns, T.M., Fu, Y., Kobayashi, D.K. et al. High incidence of TERT mutation in brain tumor cell lines. Brain Tumor Pathol 33, 222–227 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10014-016-0257-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10014-016-0257-5