In this study, via an analysis of public datasets, we demonstrated that CD163 overexpression in glioma specimens correlated with an unfavourable patient prognosis.
Two SNPs, rs147960238 in CD163 (p = 2.2 × 10<sup>-5</sup>) and rs17138945 in MET (p = 5.6 × 10<sup>-5</sup>) were significantly associated with survival of patients with lower-grade glioma.
Only CD163-positive microglia/macrophages inversely correlate with glioma patients' survival, whereas the total number of microglia does not change with the malignancy grade.
In contrast, the nuclear localization of P2RY12 was predominant in the higher graded tumors and associated with the expression of the M2 marker CD163.We conclude that P2RY12 is a specific marker for resident microglia in glioma and its expression and localization correspond to tumor grade and predominant stage of M1/M2 immune response.