Androgen Stimulation of PCA3 and miR-141 and Their Release from Prostate Cancer Cells

Objective: prostate cancer antigen 3 (pca3) and microrna-141 (mir-141) are emergingmolecules in prostate cancer (pca) pathogenesis and have been shown to be involvedin androgen signaling. in this original research, we designed an experimental cell modelwith androgen-sensitive lncap cells to comparatively assess the extent of androgen responsivenessof pca3-mrna and mir-141 along with prostate specific antigen (psa)-mrna and their release into culture medium. these molecules were also measured in theplasma of the patients with early pca which is considered to be analogous to androgenresponsivecells.materials and methods: in this experimental study, lncap cells were exposed toandrogen ablation for 48 hours and treated then with dihydrotestosterone (dht) for24 hours. expression of all three rna molecules in cells, culture medium or plasmawas measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qpcr).results: our results show that dht differentially affects the expression of these molecules.pca3 was the most evidently induced molecule (up to 400-fold, p < 0.001),while the effect was moderate for psa-mrna (up to 30-fold, p < 0.001). in contrast,the stimulation of mir-141 was much weaker (up to 1.5-fold, p > 0.05). with regardto the release into culture medium, a similar picture was observed except for pca3.pca3 was below the detection level despite its high stimulation. dht treatment led toa significant release of psa-mrna (up to 12-fold). similar to its induction pattern inlncap cells, mir-141 was released at a limited quantity into the medium (up to 1.7-fold, p=0.07). in plasma, only pca3 differed significantly between the patients andhealthy subjects (p=0.001).conclusion: our findings indicate that pca-related rna molecules respond differentiallyto androgen stimulation suggesting differential regulation by androgens.