Experimental Models of Glioma

The development and refinement of animal models of gliomagenesis has been fundamental to test hypotheses concerning the aetiology of gliomas and their molecular and cellular pathogenesis. During the last few decades, modeling has gained in complexity and is nowadays mostly relying on the cell type-specific modulation of the expression of candidate oncogenes and oncosup-pressors. Despite such technological advances, the recent appreciation of the molecular heterogeneity underlying human high-grade glioma variability re-vealed the need for a deeper characterization of the available models. It is now clear that most of the existing animal systems mimic one of the human molecular classes, known as "proneural", leaving the other groups un-derrepresented. While there is thus the need for an expansion of the range of available models, existing ones have already proven useful as translational research platforms, allowing preliminary assessment of the efficacy of classi-cal and innovative therapeutic approaches. In this contribution, we provide a general view of the field and synthesize our understanding of the biology of the most thoroughly studied model family, that of PDGF-induced gliomas.