Garrett S H, Sens M A, Shukla D, Nestor S, Somji S, Todd J H, Sens D A
Department of Pathology, Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506, USA.
Prostate. 1999 Nov 1;41(3):196-202. doi: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0045(19991101)41:3<196::aid-pros7>3.0.co;2-u.
Expression of metallothionein isoform 3 (MT-3) was initially reported to be confined to neural tissues. However, it was recently demonstrated that MT-3 is expressed in epithelial cells of the human kidney. This motivated the current examination of the expression of MT-3 in the human prostate.
Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to localize the expression of MT-3, RT-PCR to determine the expression of MT-3 mRNA, and Western blot analysis to determine the level of MT-3 protein.
Selected epithelial and stromal cells of the normal human prostate were shown to have low levels of MT-3 expression. MT-3 was increased in prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) lesions and further increased in a highly variable fashion in prostatic adenocarcinoma. In some adenocarcinomas, MT-3 expression exceeded that of nerve. Three cell culture models of prostate cancer were also shown to variably express MT-3. Restriction enzyme analysis confirmed the expression of MT-3 in the cells and tissues.
MT-3 is expressed in the normal human prostate, and expression is enhanced and highly variable in PIN lesions and primary prostate cancer cells. The variable nature of MT-3 expression was also noted in commonly utilized prostate cancer cell lines.
