Role of Obesity in Prostate Cancer Development
Abstract
Prospective epidemiological studies indicate that obesity increases the risk for prostate cancer. Also, mortality from prostate cancer is increased with elevated body weights and obesity recently was reported to be associated with higher prostate cancer grade at diagnosis and with higher recurrence rates. However, it is difficult in human studies to adequately assess effects of body weight or the effect of body weight change at specific ages on prostate cancer. Recent introduction of the TRAMP (transgenic adenocarcinoma mouse prostate) mouse provides a model that shares many characteristics with human prostate cancer. The initial goal of this proposal was to determine the effect of obesity induced at different ages on the development of prostate cancer in TRAMP mice. Obesity was induced by injections with gold-thioglucose (GTG) at either 6, 16 or 26 weeks of age. Body weight was monitored and the mice are followed until 46 weeks of age. Unfortunately there was an unexpectedly high mortality rate in TRAMP mice in response to the GTG injections. This resulted in a limited number of mice available to follow. However, the general results indicated little effect of obesity on prostate cancer in this model. A second experiment was conducted using a prostate cancer cell line developed from a TRAMP mouse tumor, TRAMP-C2. Since this cell line was developed from a mouse on the C57BL6 background it can be inoculated into wild-type mice and tumor formation can be monitored. Mice were fed a high fat diet and then divided by body weight into Obesity-Prone, Overweight and Obesity-Resistant groups with an additional group fed a low-fat diet. Mice were inoculated with the cell line and tumor growth monitored. There was some indication that the high-fat diet per se affected tumor weight and size. Interestingly, genital-urinary and prostate weights were highest in the Obesity-Prone mice.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA500597
Entities
People
- Margot P. Cleary
Organizations
- University of Minnesota