title: Prostate-specific antigen modulates the expression of genes involved in prostate tumor growth.
abstract: Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is a serine protease that is widely used as a surrogate marker in the early diagnosis and management of prostate cancer. The physiological relevance of tissue PSA levels and their role in prostate tumor growth and metastasis are not known. Free-PSA (f-PSA) was purified to homogeneity from human seminal plasma by column chromatography, eliminating hk2 and all known PSA complexes and retaining its protease activity. Confluent monolayers of prostate cancer cell lines, PC-3M and LNCaP, were treated with f-PSA in a series of in vitro experiments to determine the changes in expression of various genes that are known to regulate tumor growth and metastasis. Gene array, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QPCR), and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) results show significant changes in the expression of various cancer-related genes in PC-3M and LNCaP cells treated with f-PSA. In a gene array analysis of PC-3M cells treated with 10 muM f-PSA, 136 genes were upregulated and 137 genes were downregulated. In LNCaP cells treated with an identical concentration of f-PSA, a total of 793 genes was regulated. QPCR analysis reveals that the genes for urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA), VEGF, and Pim-1 oncogene, known to promote tumor growth, were significantly downregulated, whereas IFN-gamma, known to be a tumor-suppressor gene, was significantly upregulated in f-PSA-treated PC-3M cells. The effect of f-PSA on VEGF and IFN-gamma gene expression and on protein release in PC-3M cells was distinctly dose-dependent. In vivo studies showed a significant reduction (P = .03) in tumor load when f-PSA was administered in the tumor vicinity of PC-3M tumor-bearing BALB/c nude mice. Our data support the hypothesis that f-PSA plays a significant role in prostate tumor growth by regulating various proangiogenic and antiangiogenic growth factors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY 14263, USA.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bindukumar
authors.forename: Stanley A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.forename: Madhavan P N
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Nair
authors.forename: Ravikumar
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Aalinkeel
authors.forename: Elzbieta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kawinski
authors.forename: Kailash C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Chadha
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002845:Chromatography; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D015536:Down-Regulation; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008819:Mice, Nude; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D051573:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-pim-1; D012313:RNA / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015854:Up-Regulation; D014568:Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator / Q000378:metabolism; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A; D012313:RNA; D007371:Interferon-gamma; C496634:PIM1 protein, human; C496636:Pim1 protein, mouse; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; D051573:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-pim-1; D014568:Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen