High grade astrocytomas are very progressive brain tumors. Glioblastoma multiforme is the most frequent and the most malignant type with very infiltrative phenotype of the tumor cells. Fibroblast activation protein FAP is a predominantly membrane bound prolyl peptidase bearing exo- and endopeptidase hydrolytic activities. FAP is known to play a role in wound healing, cell migration and invasion and its expression is linked to the pathogenesis of several malignancies. mRNA expression of FAP is upregulated in 48% of glioblastomas according to The Cancer Genome Atlas microarray data. The involvement of FAP in the pathogenesis of astrocytic tumors is largely unknown. The aims of this work are to analyse the expression of FAP in primary cell cultures derived from high grade gliomas and to analyse the influence of FAP on the growth, migration and invasion of glioma cells. Our ELISA and western blot results showed heterogenous expression of FAP in the studied glioma primary cell cultures and cell lines. Both enzymatic activities characteristic of FAP were detected in the primary glioma cell culture P11 with high expression of FAP. In these cells, FAP was present not only in the typical plasma membrane localization, but also in the cytoplasm as demonstrated by immunofluorescence staining. The P11 cells...

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Tumorigenesis is a multistep process, during which cells acquire a series of mutations that lead to unrestrained cell growth and proliferation, inhibition of cell differentiation, and evasion of cell death. Growing tumors stimulate angiogenesis, providing them with nutrients and oxygen. Ultimately, tumor cells invade the surrounding tissue and metastasize; a process responsible for about 90% of cancer-related deaths. Adhesion G protein-coupled receptors (aGPCRs) modulate the cellular processes closely related to tumor cell biology, such as adhesion and detachment, migration, polarity, and guidance. Soon after first being described, individual human aGPCRs were found to be involved in tumorigenesis. Twenty-five years ago, CD97/ADGRE5 was discovered to be induced in one of the most severe tumors, dedifferentiated anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. After decades of research, the time has come to review our knowledge of the presence and function of CD97 in cancer. In summary, CD97 is obviously induced or altered in many tumor entities; this has been shown consistently in nearly one hundred published studies. However, its high expression at circulating and tumor-infiltrating immune cells renders the systemic targeting of CD97 in tumors difficult.