Brain support cells called astrocytes have long been found around glioblastomas, leading scientists to think that the cells rally to help fight the tumors, but recent studies have found that the cells instead aid the growth of the cancer. A paper published on July 28 in Brain provides further evidence that astrocytes contribute to glioblastoma progression, and identifies the mechanism by which they do so.
“We have misinterpreted astrocytes and thought it is protecting the brain, but it was really helping the tumor,” says Frank Winkler, a neuro-oncologist at the University Hospital, Heidelberg, who was not part of the study. “It always seemed like the brain is defending itself and it’s fighting the tumor, but now we know the astrocytes aren’t actually helping.”
Astrocytes regulate the flow of substances through the blood-brain barrier, maintain the neural microenvironment, and, because cholesterol produced elsewhere in the body can’t cross the blood-brain barrier, ...
