Login to Access Video or Poster Abstract: MP13-20
Sources of Funding: none

Introduction

Many factors affect the pathogenesis of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Previously, we reported that interleukin-18 (IL-18) may promote stromal hyperplasia in the prostate by inducing production of thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1), as known a regulator of angiogenesis and an activator of latent transforming growth factor beta, using BPH rat model and human cultured prostatic cells. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to determine the expression levels of IL-18 and TSP-1 in human prostate tissue and assess the roles of these expressions as biomarkers to diagnose the progression of BPH.

Methods

Study 1: We enrolled 28 patients without malignancy who underwent transperineal prostate biopsy at our institution. We obtained prostate tissues from the transitional zone and used these samples for total RNA extraction and cDNA preparation. The expression levels of IL-18 and TSP-1 mRNAs were evaluated by quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. We evaluated the correlation between mRNA expression levels and age, total prostate volume (TPV), transitional zone volume (TZV), transitional zone index (TZI), and serum PSA levels using Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient. _x000D_ Study 2: Samples from 11 of the patients in Study 1 were used to measure the volume of the prostate at biopsy and at a given point in time after biopsy. We evaluated the correlation between the increase in prostate volume per month and mRNA expression._x000D_ _x000D_

Results

Study 1: There were no correlations among age, serum PSA levels, and mRNA expression. TSP-1 expression was positively correlated with TPV (r = 0.696) and TZV (r = 0.629). _x000D_ Study 2: The mean observation period was 23.9 ± 13.4 months, and the mean increase in prostate volume was 10.4 ± 12.3 ml. There was a strong positive correlation between the increase in volume per month and TSP-1 expression (r = 0.663)._x000D_

Conclusions

TSP-1 expression was positively correlated with prostate volume and the increase in prostate volume per month. This result suggested that TSP-1 might be a potential biomarker for predicting the development of BPH.

Funding

none