gms | German Medical Science

57th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Neurosurgery
Joint Meeting with the Japanese Neurosurgical Society

German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)

11 - 14 May, Essen

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Overexpression and anti-apoptotic effects of midkine in intracranial meningiomas

Überexpression und anti-apoptotische Effekte von Midkine bei intrakraniellen Meningeomen

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  • corresponding author R. Buhl - Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Schleswig Holstein, Campus Kiel
  • T. Ying - Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
  • R. Mentlein - Anatomisches Institut, Universität Kiel
  • H.H. Hugo - Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Schleswig Holstein, Campus Kiel
  • H.M. Mehdorn - Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Schleswig Holstein, Campus Kiel
  • J. Held-Feindt - Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Schleswig Holstein, Campus Kiel

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. Japanische Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. 57. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie e.V. (DGNC), Joint Meeting mit der Japanischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. Essen, 11.-14.05.2006. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2006. DocP 06.84

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/dgnc2006/06dgnc301.shtml

Published: May 8, 2006

© 2006 Buhl et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Objective: Meningiomas are the second most common tumours of the central nervous system. Most of the meningiomas grow slowly whereas atypical and anaplastic meningiomas show an aggressive biological behaviour and a high risk of recurrence. Overexpression of growth factors is often considered to be a cause of carcinogenesis. Midkine and pleiotrophin are heparin-binding growth factors that promote growth, survival, migration and differentiation of various target cells. They are expressed during embryogenesis or early postnatus but rarely in the adult.

Results: We could show that in relation to normal dura and arachnoidal tissue midkine was overexpressed in meningiomas on mRNA and protein level whereas pleiotrophin was not. Thereby not only the intact form but also the truncated form of midkine could be observed. The expression of midkine receptors was variable in different samples. Midkine stimulation of cultivated meningioma cells induced phosphorylation of the kinase, whereas no increase in phosphorylation of p42/44 MAPK and p38 MAPK could be detected. While midkine did not influence the proliferation of meningioma cells in vitro, it protected meningioma cells against camptothecin-mediated apoptosis through down-regulation of caspase-3 activity and up-regulation of Bcl-2 expression.

Conclusions: These findings provide evidence for the overexpression of midkine in meningiomas which appears to be a malignant de-differentiation factor of meningiomas and favors tumour growth by its anti-apoptotic effect.