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Isolation and Culture of Glioblastoma Brain Tumor Stem Cells

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Brain Tumor Stem Cells

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1869))

Abstract

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been identified in glioblastoma (GBM) and are proposed to be the main actors of post-treatment recurrence contributing to the very dismal prognosis of this devastating disease. Consequently, this important population of cells needs to be further studied to uncover potential vulnerabilities, identify novel therapeutic targets, and develop drugs that can be translated to the clinic. One obstacle preventing progress in understanding the biology of GBM and the development of novel therapies has arguably been the absence of biologically relevant in vitro models representative of the CSC population in GBM. Adherent and non-adherent serum-free culture methods, initially developed for culturing neural stem cells, have been adapted to identify, isolate, maintain, and expand brain tumor stem cells (BTSCs) from GBM. In this chapter, we describe a method to isolate and culture these BTSCs from fresh GBM patient samples.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a Stem Cell Network grant to S.W.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Charles Chesnelong, Ian Restall & Samuel Weiss

  2. Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Charles Chesnelong

  3. Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Charles Chesnelong, Ian Restall & Samuel Weiss

Authors
  1. Charles Chesnelong
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  2. Ian Restall
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  3. Samuel Weiss
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Samuel Weiss .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Sheila K. Singh

  2. Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Chitra Venugopal

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Chesnelong, C., Restall, I., Weiss, S. (2019). Isolation and Culture of Glioblastoma Brain Tumor Stem Cells. In: Singh, S., Venugopal, C. (eds) Brain Tumor Stem Cells. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1869. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8805-1_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8805-1_2

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-8804-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-8805-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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