Emma Hammarlund
Research team manager
Distinct Cholesterol Localization in Glioblastoma Multiforme Revealed by Mass Spectrometry Imaging
Author
Summary, in English
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and aggressive brain tumor in adults and is highly resistant to chemo- and radiotherapies. GBM has been associated with alterations in lipid contents, but lipid metabolism reprogramming in tumor cells is not fully elucidated. One of the key hurdles is to localize the lipid species that are correlated with tumor growth and invasion. A better understanding of the localization of abnormal lipid metabolism and its vulnerabilities may open up to novel therapeutic approaches. Here, we use time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) to spatially probe the lipid composition in a GBM biopsy from two regions with different histopathologies: one region with most cells of uniform size and shape, the homogeneous part, and the other with cells showing a great variation in size and shape, the heterogeneous part. Our results reveal elevated levels of cholesterol, diacylglycerols, and some phosphatidylethanolamine in the homogeneous part, while the heterogeneous part was dominated by a variety of fatty acids, phosphatidylcholine, and phosphatidylinositol species. We also observed a high expression of cholesterol in the homogeneous tumor region to be associated with large cells but not with macrophages. Our findings suggest that ToF-SIMS can distinguish in lipid distribution between parts within a human GBM tumor, which can be linked to different molecular mechanisms.
Department/s
- StemTherapy: National Initiative on Stem Cells for Regenerative Therapy
- Division of Translational Cancer Research
- LUCC: Lund University Cancer Centre
- Molecular Evolution
- EpiHealth: Epidemiology for Health
Publishing year
2023
Language
English
Pages
1602-1609
Publication/Series
ACS Chemical Neuroscience
Volume
14
Issue
9
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
The American Chemical Society (ACS)
Topic
- Cell and Molecular Biology
Keywords
- cholesterol
- glioblastoma
- lipids
- mass spectrometry imaging
Status
Published
Research group
- Molecular Evolution
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1948-7193