Developmental origin of subependymal giant cell astrocytoma in tuberous sclerosis complex.

Children with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) harbor developmental brain abnormalities (cortical tubers) and low-grade tumors (subependymal giant cell astrocytomas [SEGAs]). Using gene expression profiling to identify neuroglial differentiation markers in Tsc1 conditional knockout mice, the authors demonstrate that giant cells of SEGAs aberrantly express similar neuroglial differentiation markers as do cortical tubers. These results suggest that both tubers and SEGAs result from related defects in progenitor cell differentiation during brain development.