Overexpression of RhoA, Rac1, and Cdc42 GTPases is associated with progression in testicular cancer.
The Rho family of GTPases are involved in actin cytoskeleton organization and associated with carcinogenesis and progression of human cancers. We investigated the roles of Rho family GTPases, prototypes RhoA, Rac1, and Cdc42, and the major downstream targets of RhoA, ROCK-I, and ROCK-II in testicular cancer. We quantified protein expression in paired tumor and nontumor samples from surgical specimens from 57 consecutive patients with testicular germ cell tumors using Western blotting. Protein expression of RhoA, ROCK-I, ROCK-II, Rac1, and Cdc42 was significantly higher in tumor tissue than in nontumor tissue (P < 0.0001). Expression of protein for RhoA, ROCK-I, ROCK-II, Rac1, and Cdc42 was greater in tumors of higher stages than lower stages (P < 0.0001, P < 0.001, P < 0.001, P < 0.0001, P < 0.0001, respectively). Within stage II nonseminoma (31 patients), protein levels of RhoA, ROCK-I, ROCK-II, Rac1, and Cdc42 in the primary tumor were lower in the group of 24 patients with no evidence of disease after therapy compared with 7 patients with disease that was refractory/recurrent (P < 0.05). Rho family GTPases may be involved in the progression of testicular germ cell tumors.
Department of Urology, Dokkyo University School of Medicine, Tochigi, Japan. kamit@dokkyomed.ac.jp
Takao
T
Kamai
Tomonori
T
Yamanishi
Hiromichi
H
Shirataki
Kentaro
K
Takagi
Hidekazu
H
Asami
Yuji
Y
Ito
Ken-Ichiro
K
Yoshida
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015153:Blotting, Western; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013736:Testicular Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D020764:cdc42 GTP-Binding Protein / Q000096:biosynthesis; D020830:rac1 GTP-Binding Protein / Q000096:biosynthesis; D020741:rho GTP-Binding Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D020742:rhoA GTP-Binding Protein / Q000096:biosynthesis
D020764:cdc42 GTP-Binding Protein; D020830:rac1 GTP-Binding Protein; D020741:rho GTP-Binding Proteins; D020742:rhoA GTP-Binding Protein