Differential gene expression of transforming growth factors alpha and beta, epidermal growth factor, keratinocyte growth factor, and their receptors in fetal and adult human prostatic tissues and cancer cell lines.

Objectives: Recent studies have shown that growth factors may play a role in the etiology of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostatic carcinoma. Several growth factors have been reported to be expressed by prostatic tissues, but these growth factors have never been examined in human fetal prostate and compared with adult prostates and cancer cell lines. The present study was designed to investigate the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) expression of transforming growth factor (TGF)-alpha, TGF-beta 1, TGF-beta 2, TGF- beta 3, keratinocyte growth factor (KGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF), EGF receptor (EGF-R), and KGF receptor (KGF-R) in human fetal and adult prostatic tissues and cancer cell lines by reverse-transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction-(RT-PCR) using specific oligonucleotide primers.

Methods: Total RNA was extracted from human fetal and adult prostates (BPH tissues) and cancer cell lines. The gene expression of these growth factors and their receptors was determined by RT-PCR using specific oligonucleotide primers.

Results: The results of these experiments suggest that: (1) human fetal prostate expressed mRNA transcripts for TGF-alpha, TGF-beta 1, TGF-beta 2, TGF-beta 3, and EGF. However, KGF, KGF-R, and EGF-R mRNA were not expressed by human fetal prostate; (2) human adult prostate (BPH tissues) showed mRNA transcripts for all growth factors and their receptors except KGF-R; (3) human BPH-1 cell lines expressed mRNA transcripts for TGF-alpha, TGF-beta 1, TGF-beta 2, TGF-beta 3, EGF, and KGF-R, but not for EGF-R and KGF growth factors; (4) human primary prostate cancer cell line (ND-1) showed mRNA transcripts for all growth factors except EGF and KGF; and (5) human prostate cancer cell lines (LNCaP, DU-145, PC-3) expressed mRNA transcripts for all growth factors except KGF, which was absent in all cell lines. However, KGF-R mRNA was absent in the PC-3 prostate cancer cell line.

Conclusions: These results suggest that the differential gene expression for various growth factors and their receptors in human fetal and adult prostatic tissues and cancer cell lines may be important in understanding the role of these factors in the pathophysiology of prostatic diseases.