Gene expression profiles of Glioblastoma stem cells in which ALK or pleiotrophin expression was suppressed.

Cancer stem cells are believed to be responsible for tumor initiation and development. Much current research on human brain tumors is focused on the stem-like properties of glioblastoma stem cells. Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) and its ligand pleiotrophin are required for maintaining the stem-like properties and tumorigenicity of glioblastoma stem cells. Human glioblastoma stem cells (GB2) were infected with a lentivirus expressing an shRNA targeting ALK or pleiotrophin.