Expression of stem cell markers in meningioma among Sudanese patients

Background: Meningioma is the second most common primary intracranial tumor of the central nervous system, surgical total excision of meningioma offers a better survival to patients; however, a significant proportion of histological variant recur within 5 years despite complete excision. Chemotherapy is generally unsuccessful in treating meningiomas, so refractory and recurrence meningioma are treated with palliative surgery and radiotherapy. In this context, certain therapeutic approaches based on effective molecular biology are needed. In ecent years, the so-called cancer stem cells (CSC) have emerged; these cells can be identified by stem cell markers among many other cancers, but there is no unique marker found in all stem cells, as their phenotype varies considerably among different cells and species. The aim of the study: To characterize the RNA (cDNA) of CD 44, CD 73 and CD 105 genes as stem cell markers in meningioma among Sudanese patients and to correlate the PCR findings of CD 44, CD 73 and CD 105 genes with meningioma histological variants. Materials and methods: Using Innu PREP RNA – MiniKit (Analytic Jena) 56 tissue samples radiologically diagnosed as meningioma were immediately processed for RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis. The PCR was done using Maxime PCR premix Kit (i-Taq) entrobiotechnology. Results: This study included 56 tumor samples; 54 samples were confirmed histologically to be meningioma; 40 (74.07%) were female and 14 (25.93%) ere male. The majority of the patients were Afro-Asian (68.4), followed by Niger-Congo (22.8), and all patients had headache. CD44 was expressed in all meningioma samples (100%), CD73 was positive in 61% and negative in 39%, CD105 was positive in 89% of the samples. Conclusion: Our results showed that, the expression of cancer stem cell markers in meningioma was inconsistent within the same class of meningioma; moreover, the expression of CD44, CD73 and CD105 markers could confirm the presence of cancer stem cells in our meningioma samples.