Ferritin in glioblastoma

Menée à partir d'échantillons sériques et d'échantillons tumoraux prélevés sur 34 patients atteints d'un glioblastome ou d'un méningiome, cette étude analyse la corrélation entre l'altération du niveau sérique de ferritine avant chirurgie et la synthèse intratumorale de ferritine, puis examine le rôle de cette synthèse dans le développement de la tumeur

Résumé en anglais

Elevated levels of serum ferritin (SF) are observed in several types of cancer; however, little is known on the association between ferritin and glioma, the most frequent type of human primary brain tumour. Here we report that GBM patients show significantly increased pre-surgical SF levels (i.e. ferritinaemia) within the SF reference range and a marked ferritin immunoreactivity of resected tumour tissue. Our findings account for an indirect association between ferritin synthesis in glioma-tissue and altered SF levels, which limits the clinical value of SF as a tumour marker in glioma. Importantly, we show for the first time that GBM-derived glioma cells release ferritin in vitro, which exerts an apoptosis-stimulating activity. Albeit the pathophysiologic context of apoptosis induction by a tumour-derived ferritin remains to be defined, our findings account for a distinct growth-regulatory role of these ferritin species in tumour biology.