Prostate Specific Expression of Maspin in a Transgenic Mouse Model: Implications in Prostate Carcinogenesis

摘要

Tumor growth and metastasis is a complex pathophysiological process comprising of various interactions between tumor cells and the hose(1-3). A significant approach in understanding tumor invasion and metastasis is by identifying the genes involved in tumor growth and suppression, and investigating their molecular mechanisms and eventually in their role as therapeutic agent, if any. Maspin is a tumor suppressor gene related to the serine protease inhibitor (serpin) family (4). It is expressed in normal prostate epithelial cells, but is down regulated as normal prostate cells progress from a pre-neoplastic to an invasive state. This down regulation is mediated in vitro at the transcriptional level through cis-acting elements and trans-acting factors in the maspin promotor(5). Further, recombinant maspin is shown to inhibit prostate tumor-induced growth and neovascularization in a xenograft nude mouse model and inhibit tumor invasion and motility of prostatic cell lines in vitro(6).