BioMed Central, Acta Neuropathologica Communications, 1(4), 2016
DOI: 10.1186/s40478-016-0331-6
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Abstract Gliomas are the most frequent intraaxial CNS neoplasms with a heterogeneous molecular background. Recent studies on diffuse gliomas have shown frequent alterations in the genes involved in chromatin remodelling pathways such as α-thalassemia/mental-retardation-syndrome-X-linked gene (ATRX). Yet, the reliability of ATRX in predicting isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) and H3 histone, family 3A (H3F3A) mutations in gliomas, is unclear. We analysed the ATRX expression status by immunohistochemistry, in a large series of 1064 gliomas and analysed the results in correlation to IDH, H3F3A and loss of heterozygosity (LOH) 1p/19q status in these tumors. We also investigated the prognostic potential of ATRX concerning the clinical outcome of patients with diffuse gliomas. According to our results, loss of nuclear ATRX expression was accompanied with an astrocytic tumor lineage and a younger age of onset. ATRX loss in astrocytomas was also strongly associated with IDH1/2 and H3F3A mutation ( p