Expression of prothymosin alpha is correlated with development and progression in human prostate cancers.
BACKGROUND
Our previous study clearly demonstrated that decreased expression of prothymosin alpha (PTMA) was associated with inhibition of rat prostate carcinogenesis by isoflavones. The purpose of the present investigation was to provide a better understanding of the role of PTMA in human prostate cancers.


RESULTS
PTMA expression in 68 prostate cancer cases and in prostate cancer cell lines was examined by immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting, and its levels were increased with progression from normal epithelium, through prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) to carcinomas, correlating with the Gleason's pattern. All cell lines studied (LNCaP, 22Rv1, DU145, and PC3) showed high PTMA expression compared with prostate epithelial cells (PrEC). Knockdown of PTMA expression in PC3 cells by RNAi resulted in the inhibition of both cell growth and invasion in vitro.


CONCLUSIONS
The present study clearly demonstrated that PTMA expression is intimately involved in the differentiation and progression of human prostate cancers, and could be a target for therapy and diagnostic purposes.
Suzuki
Shugo
S
Department of Experimental Pathology and Tumor Biology, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan. shugo@med.nagoya-cu.ac.jp
Takahashi
Satoru
S
Takahashi
Seishiro
S
Takeshita
Kentaro
K
Hikosaka
Atsuya
A
Wakita
Toshiaki
T
Nishiyama
Naoki
N
Fujita
Tamio
T
Okamura
Takehiko
T
Shirai
Tomoyuki
T
D001344:Autopsy; D002455:Cell Division; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D017931:DNA Primers; D018450:Disease Progression; D017353:Gene Deletion; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009375:Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D011470:Prostatic Hyperplasia / Q000473:pathology; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D011498:Protein Precursors / Q000235:genetics*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013947:Thymosin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000235:genetics
D017931:DNA Primers; D011498:Protein Precursors; C040782:prothymosin alpha; D013947:Thymosin