Pang See-Tong, Fang Xioalei, Valdman Alexander, Norstedt Gunnar, Pousette Ake, Egevad Lars, Ekman Peter
Department of Molecular Medicine, Karolinska Hospital, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
Urology. 2004 Mar;63(3):609-12. doi: 10.1016/j.urology.2003.09.068.
To study the protein expression and gene copy number of ezrin in a set of high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN) samples with concomitant prostate cancer. Ezrin is a cytoskeleton linker protein that is actively involved in regulating the growth and metastatic capacity of cancer cells.
Nineteen HGPIN samples obtained from radical prostatectomy specimens were used for the study. Among them, 13 samples also contained invasive prostate cancer. The expression of ezrin was studied by immunohistochemistry. The same samples were also used for fluorescence in situ hybridization to study the gene copy number of ezrin.
Immunoreactivity for ezrin was absent or weak in benign prostatic epithelial cells. Weak or moderate immunostaining was detected in 11 of 13 prostate cancer specimens. However, the immunostaining was moderate or strong in all HGPIN samples. In addition, whenever HGPIN and prostate cancer were found in the same sample, the staining was always more intense in the HGPIN cells than in the cancer cells. No alteration was found in the gene copy number detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization.
We have shown that ezrin is overexpressed in HGPIN and prostate cancer compared with adjacent benign prostatic epithelium. In addition, HGPIN has a greater expression level of ezrin compared with that of prostate cancer. Our results indicate that aberrant expression of ezrin might be involved in the pathogenesis of prostate cancer, and ezrin expression may be useful for the diagnosis of HGPIN.
研究一组伴有前列腺癌的高级别前列腺上皮内瘤变（HGPIN）样本中埃兹蛋白的蛋白表达和基因拷贝数。埃兹蛋白是一种细胞骨架连接蛋白，积极参与调节癌细胞的生长和转移能力。
从根治性前列腺切除术标本中获取的19个HGPIN样本用于该研究。其中，13个样本还含有浸润性前列腺癌。通过免疫组织化学研究埃兹蛋白的表达。同样的样本也用于荧光原位杂交以研究埃兹蛋白的基因拷贝数。
在良性前列腺上皮细胞中，埃兹蛋白的免疫反应性缺失或较弱。在13个前列腺癌标本中的11个中检测到弱或中度免疫染色。然而，在所有HGPIN样本中免疫染色为中度或强阳性。此外，当在同一样本中发现HGPIN和前列腺癌时，HGPIN细胞中的染色总是比癌细胞中的更强烈。荧光原位杂交检测的基因拷贝数未发现改变。
我们已经表明，与相邻的良性前列腺上皮相比，埃兹蛋白在HGPIN和前列腺癌中过表达。此外，与前列腺癌相比，HGPIN中埃兹蛋白的表达水平更高。我们的结果表明，埃兹蛋白的异常表达可能参与前列腺癌的发病机制，并且埃兹蛋白表达可能有助于HGPIN的诊断。
