Investigation of SNARE-Mediated Membrane Trafficking in Prostate Cancer Cells

摘要

The specific purposes of this project are to investigate how the expression and localization of membrane SNAREs in prostate carcinomas, and what the relationship to the degree of malignancy and metastasis. 15 transgenic mice of prostate cancer (Tramp) with different stages of carcingensis, and 5 cases of human prostatic carcinomas were used. Paraffin sections were immuno-stained with anti-t-SNARE antibodies, syntaxin 3 and syntaxin 4. The localizations of t- SNAREs were observed with a confocal microscope. Cell polarity was preserved in most prostatic lesions both in Tramp mice and human prostatic cancers as shown by basolateral E-cadherin, except one metastatic lesion in the kidney of one Tramp mouse. Down-regulation of syntaxin 3 was observed in 7 of 15 tramp mice, and in 4 of 5 human prostate cancers. This is correlated with the low degrees of differentiation, down-expression of E-cadherin and p27. But the intracellular localization of syntaxin 3 and 4 was only observed in the metastatic lesions, suggesting that down-regulation and mislocalization of t-SNARE play a role in progression of prostate cancer.