The microglial/macrophagic response at the tumour-brain border of invasive meningiomas.

AIMS: Little is known about the immune response of the brain to invasive meningiomas. The present study was based upon the hypothesis that the microglial/macrophagic response towards brain-invasive meningiomas is dependent on the intactness of the pial-glial basement membrane.

METHODS

We immunostained sections from 40 brain-invasive meningiomas that were graded according to World Health Organization (WHO) 2007 criteria. Thirty-three tumours were histologically WHO grade II (18, 'otherwise benign', and 15, 'otherwise atypical'), and seven, grade III. Microglial/macrophagic cells were labelled with antibodies directed against major histocompatibility complex class II, CD68, CD14 and CD163. Anti-collagen IV was used to visualize basement membranes.

RESULTS

Twenty-five per cent (10/40) meningiomas (1/18 WHO grade II 'otherwise benign', 3/15 grade II 'otherwise atypical' and 6/7 WHO grade III) contained microglial/macrophagic cells at the tumour-brain border. The presence of these cells correlated with the absence of the pial-glial basement membrane (BM) and with WHO grade III. The monocytic response was of two kinds: one consisted of a dense layer of mononuclear cells at the tumour-brain border in nine cases, the other of an elevated number of microglial cells expressing CD14 or CD163 (two cases).

CONCLUSIONS

The immune response at the tumour-brain interface correlates with the absence of the pial-glial BM and with malignancy grade. It remains to be established whether the mononuclear cells at the tumour-brain border are native microglia or blood-derived macrophages.