cell-like glioma cells promote tumor angiogenesis through vascular endothelial growth factor. Cancer Res

Malignant gliomas are highly lethal cancers dependent on angiogenesis. Critical tumor subpopulations within gliomas share characteristics with neural stem cells. We examined the potential of stem cell–like glioma cells (SCLGC) to support tumor angiogenesis. SCLGC isolated from human glioblasto-ma biopsy specimens and xenografts potently generated tumors when implanted into the brains of immunocompro-mised mice, whereas non-SCLGC tumor cells isolated from only a few tumors formed secondary tumors when xenotrans-planted. Tumors derived from SCLGC were morphologically distinguishable from non-SCLGC tumor populations by widespread tumor angiogenesis, necrosis, and hemorrhage. To determine a potential molecular mechanism for SCLGC in angiogenesis, we measured the expression of a panel o