Fig. 1.

Cox-2 is overexpressed in glioblastoma (GBM)-bearing mouse brains. (A) GBMs generated via injection of PDGFB-expressing virus into the lateral ventricle of Nestin-tva, Arf ^−/− mice showed significant expression of Cox-2 compared with a corresponding cortical region in a nontumor-bearing mouse. Scale bar = 0.2 mm. (B) Double-labeling with Cox-2 and the tumor vasculature marker CD105 showed minimal overlap. Scale bar = 0.1 mm. (C) Tumor (T) and Nontumor adjacent (NTA) tissue were isolated from tumor-bearing brains (n = 3) and analyzed by Western blot. Cox-2 was consistently elevated in T and NTA tissue relative to tumor-free (TF) tissue. (D) Dissociated GBMs were used to generate adherent primary tumor cultures. These cultures continued to express Cox-2 by immunofluorescence staining. Scale bar = 0.1 mm. (E) Cox-2 protein levels were determined by Western blot using lysates from primary cultures of GBM versus adult neural stem cells (aNSC). (F) PGE₂ levels were analyzed by ELISA on conditioned media from primary aNSC and GBM cultures treated with 5 µM celecoxib or vehicle for 24 hours. Error bars represent mean ± SEM (n = 3). *, P < 0.05.