Suppressive Role of Androgen-Response Gene Calreticulin in Prostate Cancer
Abstract
Androgens are intimately associated with prostate cancer progression. We have previously identified more than 24 androgen-response genes. One of the genes encodes calreticulin, a highly conserved protein with demonstrated functions in intracellular Ca' homeostasis, cell adhesion, chaperoning, and gene expression. Our studies have indicated that calreticulin overexpression is suppressive to anchorage-independent growth and metastasis of prostate cancer cells and calreticulin expression is down-regulated in human prostate tumor specimens. Thus, down-regulation of calreticulin in clinical prostate cancer specimens is likely to be an important step in prostate cancer progression. Our observations argue that part of androgen-induced gene expression program, such as calreticulin, is inactivated in the progression of prostate cancer, which represents a new concept in prostate cancer biology. Our results also provided strong basis for further exploring the mechanism by which calreticulin suppresses prostate tumor metastasis. In addition, we have generated 9 deletion mutants for calreticulin, which will allow us to determine which of the three domains, N, P, or C, is responsible for the suppression of prostate tumor metastasis.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA407617
Entities
People
- Zhong Wang
Organizations
- Northwestern University