摘要Although it is believed that glioma is derived from brain tumor stem cells, the source and molecular signal pathways of these cells are stil unclear. In this study, we used stable doxycycline-inducible transgenic mouse brain tumor models (c-myc+/SV40Tag+/Tet-on+) to explore the malignant trans-formation potential of neural stem cells by observing the differences of neural stem cel s and brain tumor stem cells in the tumor models. Results showed that chromosome instability occurred in brain tumor stem cells. The numbers of cytolysosomes and autophagosomes in brain tumor stem cells and induced neural stem cel s were lower and the proliferative activity was obviously stronger than that in normal neural stem cells. Normal neural stem cells could differentiate into glial fibril ary acidic protein-positive and microtubule associated protein-2-positive cells, which were also negative for nestin. However, glial fibril ary acidic protein/nestin, microtubule associated protein-2/nestin, and glial fibril ary acidic protein/microtubule associated protein-2 double-positive cells were found in induced neural stem cells and brain tumor stem cel s. Results indicate that induced neural stem cells are similar to brain tumor stem cells, and are possibly the source of brain tumor stem cells.