February 24, 2023

expert reaction to mouse study on mechanisms of head injury and risk of brain cancer (and observations from human dataset)

A study published in Current Biology looks at mechanisms of head injury and risk of brain cancer.

Dr Mark Dallas, Associate Professor in Cellular Neuroscience, University of Reading, said:

“This research done in mice provides new insight into the changes in the brain that occur as a result of brain injury. It also sheds light on how these changes can increase risk of brain cancer. The work focuses on a specific cell type within our brain, known as astrocytes, and demonstrates their ability to change identity after injury. This new identity allow the cells to turn cancerous as the mice aged. While it does not directly indicate that a brain injury will guarantee that an individual will develop cancer, it provides a biological mechanism by which the risk of cancer may be elevated, and therefore something which should be investigated fully in humans.

“It also highlights the increasing importance of being able to monitor our brains inflammatory status, to discern what is good and what is bad inflammation not only after injury but as we age.”

‘Injury primes mutation bearing astrocytes for dedifferentiation in later life’ by Holly Simpson Ragdale et al. was published in Current Biology at 16:00 UK time on Friday 24 February.

Declared interests

Dr Mark Dallas: “No conflicts of interest.”