Expression of Toll-like receptor 4 in the prostate gland and its association with the severity of prostate cancer

GATTI G; QUINTAR AA; ANDREANI V; NICOLA JP; MALDONADO CA; MASINI - REPISO AM; RIVERO VE; MACCIONI M

WILEY-LISS, DIV JOHN WILEY & SONS INC

Lugar: Nueva York; Año: 2009 vol. 69 p. 1387 - 1387

h4>BACKGROUND: Chronic inflammation has been postulated to be an important driving force to prostate carcinoma. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) compose a family of receptors mainly expressed on immune cells. Recently, functional TLRs have been shown to be also expressed in numerous cancer cells, but their significance has only recently begun to be explored. The purpose of this study was to investigate the putative role of TLR4 expression in prostate carcinoma. METHODS: To determine if there is an association between TLR4 expression and the malignancy of the tumor, 35 prostate carcinoma samples showing different Gleason grades were analyzed by immunohistochemistry. Also, to explore the functionality of the receptors expressed on the epithelium, we analyzed the type of cytokine response elicited and the signaling pathways involved after TLR4 triggering in the human prostate adenocarcinoma cell line, DU-145. RESULTS: TLR4 is expressed in the normal prostate gland in both s