Protein kinase C activity correlates with the growth rate of malignant gliomas: Part II. Effects of glioma mitogens and modulators of protein kinase C

THE PROLIFERATION RATES of gliomas may be modulated by the protein kinase C (PKC) signal transduction system. The present study was undertaken to further examine the role of PKC system in growth regulation of gliomas in vitro by measurement of PKC activity over various phases of tumor growth and by assessing its potential role as a signal transduction system induced by serum mitogens and the known glioma mitogens epidermal growth factor and fibroblast growth factor. All human glioma lines examined, and the rat glioma C6, displayed high PKC activity relative to nonmalignant glial cells, which correlated with their proliferation rates over their respective growth phase. Frozen surgical human malignant glioma specimens also displayed high PKC activity.