comparison of the serum level of glycine n-methyl transferase (gnmt) enzyme in prostate cancer, benign prostatic hyperplasi and healthy subjects

Objectives: prostate cancer (pca) is regarded as the most common malignancy in men, and it  is associated with higher levels of prostate-specific antigen (psa). recently, it has been demonstrated that glycine n-methyltransferase (gnmt) plays a critical role in sarcosine production. there is evidence that the serum levels of this enzyme changes in many malignancies, such as hepatocellular carcinoma, colorectal, and gastric cancer. in the current study, we evaluate the serum levels of gnmt in the pca, benign prostatic hyperplasia (bph) and healthy subjects.methods: serum samples were obtained from 85 adult males (29 patients with pca, 28 patients with bph and 28 healthy participants) referred to the shahid beheshti hospital in babol and shahid hasheminejad hospital in tehran. results: our finding showed that psa level was significantly higher in pca group than bph patients and healthy individuals. moreover, pca patients had higher level of gnmt as compared to the bph patients and healthy controls, but it has not appeared significant. serum level of gnmt enzyme was positively correlated with age in pca group. in bph group, the levels of gnmt was significantly correlated with psa concentrations. conclusion: it seems that serum gnmt level is increased in pc patients. however, more research with a bigger sample size is needed to validate these findings.