Divergent effects of castration on prostate cancer in TRAMP mice: possible implications for therapy.
OBJECTIVE
Divergent responses to androgen deprivation have been found in patients and in animal models of prostate cancer. The molecular basis for these different outcomes is unknown. Our aim was to identify the molecular responses of prostate cancer with divergent outcomes to androgen deprivation in TRAMP mice.


METHODS
Castrated and noncastrated B6xFVB TRAMP mice were evaluated for survival, tumor development, pathology, and expressions of specific proteins at different time points.


RESULTS
TRAMP mice responded differentially to androgen deprivation. In the majority, primary tumors regressed after castration (positive response), whereas in others the tumors grew even more aggressively than in the noncastrated mice (negative response). Mice with regressed tumors had the highest survival rates. Androgen receptor was elevated in all tumors from castrated mice despite significant differences in tumor sizes. In positively responding tumors, expressions of Bcl-2 and Grp78 were greatly increased by 10 weeks after castration, whereas expressions of Bax, Bcl-xl, SV40 T antigen, and c-myc were lower. These tumors also showed a reduction in proliferating cells compared with noncastrates and negatively responding tumors. Most of these changes disappeared 20 weeks after castration, by which time there was an increase in the size of primary tumors as well as in distant metastasis.


CONCLUSIONS
In TRAMP prostate cancer that responded positively to castration, different expression patterns of proteins involved in cellular apoptosis, stress, and proliferation occur approximately 10 weeks after castration. This may be an optimal time for targeting Bcl-2, and perhaps Grp78, to enhance the antitumor effects of androgen deprivation.
Tang
Yao
Y
Department of Medicine, Greenebaum Cancer Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.
Wang
Linbo
L
Goloubeva
Olga
O
Khan
Mohammad Afnan
MA
Zhang
Bin
B
Hussain
Arif
A
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D000818:Animals; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002369:Castration; D000091342:Endoplasmic Reticulum Chaperone BiP; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D011944:Receptors, Androgen / Q000378:metabolism
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D000091342:Endoplasmic Reticulum Chaperone BiP; C000717248:Hspa5 protein, mouse; D011944:Receptors, Androgen