Hyaluronidase-2 overexpression accelerates intracerebral but not subcutaneous tumor formation of murine astrocytoma cells

Abstract

Gliomas are highly invasive, invariably fatal intracerebral tumors. It seems that receptors for hyaluronan are required for the invasive process. Hyaluronan is a major component of the extracellular matrix in the brain, and all of the gliomas express CD44, the principal receptor for hyaluronan. To investigate the role of lysosomal hyaluronidases on tumor invasion we overexpressed hyaluronidase-2 (HYAL2) in murine astrocytoma cells. We found that high expression of HYAL2 accelerated intracerebral tumor growth dramatically, whereas the same cells formed s.c. tumors within the same time as the parental cells. The brain tumors were highly vascularized and more invasive than the control tumors. I..