Researchers at the University of California report that traumatic brain injuries can increase the risk of developing glioma, a dangerous brain cancer later in life. Scientists doing their job published in the journal Current Biology.
Glioma is a tumor that affects the glial cells of the brain or spinal cord, the most common primary tumor and also the most severe and most difficult to treat brain tumor. More mature brain cells called astrocytes are thought to be less likely to cause tumors. However, after injury, astrocytes may reappear as stem cells, leading to tumor growth.
The scientists used a mouse model in their study. The first group of rodents with brain damage were injected with a substance that marks astrocytes in red and turns off the cancer-suppressing p53 gene. The second uninjured person was also subjected to gene inactivation.
“Without p53 and only after injury, astrocytes changed their shape: in the normal state they look like stars, but under the conditions described they retracted their tips. They did not appear as stems yet. We let the mice age, then looked at the cells again and found that they completely reverted to the stem state and began to show early signs of glioma. ”the scientists explained.
The researchers hypothesized that mutations in certain genes interact with trauma-induced inflammation in the brain and then increase over time during the natural aging process, increasing the likelihood of cancer.
According to the study’s authors, patients who have had a head injury are almost four times more likely to develop brain cancer later in life than those who have not had a head injury.