C-6 Glioma Cells of Early Passage Have Progenitor Properties in Culture

Although considerable progress has been made in the last decade in our understanding of the role of glial cells in neuronal development and function, the factors which regulate glia cell growth and function are only recently being investigated (see refs in review Vernadakis, 1988). C-6 glioma cells have provided a useful model to study glial cell properties, glial factors and sensitivity of glial cells to various substances and conditions. In an early study, we reported (Parker et al, 1980) that C-6 glioma cells, 2B clone, exhibited differential enzyme expression with cell passage: the activity of cyclic nucleotide phosphohydrolase (CNP) an enzyme marker for oligodendrocytes (Poduslo and Norton, 1972; Poduslo, 1975) was markedly high and that of glutamine synthetase (GS), an enzyme marker for astrocytes (Martinez-Hernandez et al, 1977; Norenberg and Martinez-Hernandez, 1979) was low in early passages (up to passage 26) and this relationship was reversed in the late passages (beyond passage 70)