Prostate Cancer Essay

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The prostate gland is the largest accessory sex gland . it is found at the base of the bladder and it encircles the prostatic urethra. This gland secretes prostatic fluid that makes up 30% of the semen into urethra contributing to sperm motility and viability. The prostate is classified as a tubulo- alvelolar gland having two distinctive units the epithelium and stroma. The constituents of the stroma are fibroblast , Smooth muscle cells and collagen. The epithelium is mainly simple columnar secretor. In the stromal compartment there are sparse neuroendocine cells (45). The prostate epithelial cells are either classified as basal or luminal. the basal cells are characterized by set or markers mainly cytokeratin 5, 14 and p63 . However, a …show more content…

Prostate cancer is a hormone depended tumor that is capable to metastasis to different organs. Before metastasis, prostate cancer cells undergo EMT a process that enhances these cells to acquire an aggressive phenotype. In EMT the cells modify their adhesive property in order to facilitate movement. the cell reorganize their actin cytoskeleton and acquire migratory microstructures like lamellipodia, filopodia and podosomes.[ref29] . EMT is characterized molecular changes that reflects gene expression . cells undergoing EMT show different expressions of junctional proteins. Ecadherins is replaced by N-chadherin in prostate cancer [ref 31] . EMT is also characterized by increase in the intermediate filament vimentin (ref 34) .Slug is shown to play a role in controlling the mesenchymal differentiation. Hence the increase of slug expresion is a marker for EMT [ref 33]. The transcription factor twist is also another regulator of EMT. High levels of twist are correlated to decrease in E-cadherin and enhancement in metastatic ability . (ref 35). Another important determintant to asses EMT is the increase in the expression of the transcription factor SNAIL . Snail represses further the expression of e-cadherin and promoting for mesenchymal phenotype . it is assessed as a marker in invasive carcinomas (36). Zeb is another family of transcription factors that is one of the basic markers of …show more content…

Then it was shown to be expressed in normal tissues as well as malignancy tissues. It is a major regulator of smooth muscle tone and calcium uptake (39). Studies have shown that parathyroid hormone related protein (PTHrp) is vital in inducing EMT in DU145 prostate cancer cells overexpressing PTHrp [ref9]. This hormone enhances cancer progression binding to a cell surface receptor or a nuclear receptor. Hence its mode of action is through paracrine , autocrine and intracrine pathways [ref24]. PTHrp through its receptor have been confirmed to play a role in prostate to bone metastasis. Invivo studies in mouse models showed that human cell lines transfected with (PTHrp) showed skeletal progression of the cancer . Hence, there is a direct correlation between the expression level of PTHrp and prostate to bone metastasis [ref

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