Identification of Epigenetic Changes in Prostate Cancer Using Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
Abstract
Substantial evidence supports the view that epigenetic changes play an important role in the development of human prostate cancer (PCa). Identification of these changes will have significant impact on the prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of PCa. Induced-pluripotent stem (iPS) cells generated by forced expression of certain transcription factors resemble embryonic stem (ES) cells in their morphology, gene expression, and ability to differentiate into any cell type, therefore, promise nearly everything that ES cells do, including the potential for cell therapy, drug screening and disease modeling. Because iPS cells re-establish a genome-wide epigenetic pattern characteristic of ES cells, iPS cells derived from primary PCa (PCa-iPS) cells can be a powerful tool to identify epigenetic changes responsible for PCa development. We hypothesize that primary PCa cells can be reprogrammed to a pluripotent state by introducing a defined and limited set of transcription factors and by culturing under ES cell conditions. Furthermore, these PCa-iPS cells can be re-differentiated back to PCa cells similar to those in the primary cancer by culturing under differentiation-inducing conditions. By comparing the epigenetic state of PCa-iPS cells and their differentiated progeny, alterations responsible for the cancer phenotype that are erased during the reprogramming can be identified on a genome-wide scale.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA544181
Entities
People
- Donna Peehl
Organizations
- Stanford University