title: Hedgehog pathway responsiveness correlates with the presence of primary cilia on prostate stromal cells.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hedgehog (Hh) signaling from the urogenital sinus (UGS) epithelium to the surrounding mesenchyme plays a critical role in regulating ductal formation and growth during prostate development. The primary cilium, a feature of most interphase vertebrate cell types, serves as a required localization domain for Hh signaling transducing proteins.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Immunostaining revealed the presence of primary cilia in mesenchymal cells of the developing prostate. Cell-based assays of a urongenital sinus mesenchymal cell line (UGSM-2) revealed that proliferation-limiting (serum starvation and/or confluence) growth conditions promoted cilia formation and correlated with pathway activation associated with accumulation of Smoothened in primary cilia. The prostate cancer cell lines PC-3, LNCaP, and 22RV1, previously shown to lack demonstrable autocrine Hh signaling capacity, did not exhibit primary cilia even under proliferation-limiting growth conditions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We conclude that paracrine Hedgehog signaling activity in the prostate is associated with the presence of primary cilia on stromal cells but that a role in autocrine Hh signaling remains speculative.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA. jingxian99@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Jingxian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Lipinski
authors.forename: Jerry J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Gipp
authors.forename: Aubie K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.forename: Wade
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Bushman
mesh_terms: D002460:Cell Line; D002923:Cilia / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D053823:Hedgehog Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011467:Prostate / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology; D017154:Stromal Cells / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure
chemical_list: D053823:Hedgehog Proteins