Cell-cycle inhibitor p27/Kip-1 expression in non-astrocytic and non-oligodendrocytic human nervous system tumors.

p27/kip-1 is a 'universal inhibitor' which inhibits cyclin complexes with cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs), preventing cell cycle from the G1-S progression. It is expressed in normal oligodendrocytes and in differentiated glial tumors, decreasing with anaplasia and malignancy. In non-astrocytic and non-oligodendrocytic tumors of the nervous system, such as meningiomas, schwannomas, medulloblastomas, neuroblastomas and malignant lymphomas, p27/kip-1 is inconstantly and sometimes poorly expressed. This can be due to the lacking of p27 expression in the normal counterpart of tumor cells. In some tumors, p27/kip-1 expression can be attributed to a differentiation process, as in the pale islands of desmoplastic medulloblastoma and in neuroblastomas. A correlation of p27/kip-1 expression with histology was not found, with the exception of apoptosis in medulloblastomas. p27/kip-1 is in feed-back with cyclins and CDKs for the control of cell proliferation and its expression may occur where requested by the interplay with cyclins and other inhibitors.