@Copyright 1995by Hurnana Press Inc. All rights of any nature whatsoeverreserved. 1044-7393/95/2402-03--0121 $07.00 Gangliosides Modulate Proliferation, Migration, and Invasiveness of Human Brain Tumor Cells In Vitro ABDERRAHIMMERZAK,* SHAHRIAR KOOCHEKPOUR,SARAH MCCREA, YANNIS ROXANIS, AND GEOFFREYJ. PILKINGTON Department of Neuropathology, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF, UK Received and Accepted September 16, 1994 ABSTRACT Gliomas, the most common form of intrinsic brain tumor, are characterized by diffuse local invasion of the normal brain structures, irrespective of their histological grade of malignancy; a feature that is a major obstacle to successful therapy. They generally infiltrate the central nervous system (CNS) as individual tumor cells several centi- meters beyond the macroscopic tumor margin and consequently often recur, after subtotal surgical resection. Factors involved in the control of both their proliferation and invasiveness are poorly docu- mented. In this work, the role of gangliosides on proliferation of both human fetal human brain cells and five cell lines derived from human gliomas with different grades of malignancy was investigated. In addition, 8 #m-porosity polycarbonate filters were used to study cell motility. In addition, these filters were coated with the reconstituted extracellular matrix (ECM) composite, Matrigel, to assess invasive- ness. The results presented show that gangliosides generally exert a proliferation inhibitory effect on fetal brain cells and glioma cell lines in vitro and play an important role in promoting glioma cell motility *Author to whom all correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed. Molecular and Chemical Neuropathology 121 Vol.24, 1995