In colon carcinogenesis, the cytoskeletal protein gelsolin is down-regulated during the transition from adenoma to carcinoma.

The actin-binding protein gelsolin is involved in cell motility via the regulation of actin cytoskeleton, and its expression is modified in several human cancers. However, the potential implication of this protein in colorectal carcinogenesis is debated. By using immunohistochemistry, we studied gelsolin expression in 69 cases of colon adenocarcinomas and in 72 lesions representative of the different stages of colonic tumorigenesis. In addition, we performed Northern blot analysis of gelsolin messenger RNA in 12 paired samples of human colon cancer and normal corresponding mucosa. Gelsolin protein and messenger RNA expressions were severely down-regulated in all adenocarcinomas tested. Moreover, gelsolin protein was down-regulated in a large proportion of high-grade adenomas (14/16) before the acquisition of invasive properties but in only a small proportion of low grade adenomas and serrated adenomas (2/30) and in none of the 9 cases of nonneoplastic hyperplastic polyps tested. Our results therefore demonstrate that gelsolin down-regulation is an early and almost constant event in colon carcinogenesis and is associated with the transition from adenoma to carcinoma.

Androgen inhibits the growth of carcinoma cell lines established from prostate cancer xenografts that escape androgen treatment.

Most prostate cancers escape endocrine therapy by diverse mechanisms. One of them might be growth repression by androgen. We reported that androgen represses the growth in culture of MOP cells (a sub-line of LNCaP cells) and that of MOP cell xenografts, although tumor growth becomes androgen-independent (AI). Here we explore whether AI tumors contain androgen-responsive cells. ME carcinoma cells were established from AI tumors. The responses to androgen were examined by cell counting, DAPI labeling, flow cytometry, PSA immunoassay and tumor size follow-up. Androgen receptors (AR) were analyzed by western blotting and DNA sequencing. The pattern of responses of these cells to androgen was compared to that of MOP cells and that of JAC cells established from LNCaP-like MOP cells. R1881, a synthetic androgen: (1) repressed the growth of all the six ME cell lines obtained, MOP and JAC cells, (2) augmented the secretion of PSA, (3) induced spectacular cell bubbling/fragmentation and (4) blocked the cell cycle and induced a modest increase of apoptosis. All the androgen-repressed cells expressed the same level of mutated AR as LNCaP cells. In nude mice, the growth of ME-2 cell xenografts displayed transient androgen repression similar to that of MOP cells. In culture neither fibroblasts nor extra-cellular matrix altered the effects of R1881 on cell proliferation. These results demonstrate that androgen-independent tumors contain androgen-responsive cells. The apparent discrepancy between the responses to androgen of tumors and those of carcinoma cells in culture suggests that microenvironmental factors contribute to the androgen responsiveness of tumor cells in vivo. These modifications, albeit unspecified, could be suitable targets for restoring the androgen responsiveness of AI tumors.

Aldehyde dehydrogenase inhibitors: alpha,beta-acetylenic N-substituted aminothiolesters are reversible growth inhibitors of normal epithelial but irreversible apoptogens for cancer epithelial cells from human prostate in culture.

The pharmacomodulation of the N atom of alpha,beta-acetylenic aminothiolesters or the replacement of the thiolester moiety by more electrophilic groups did not permit any clear rationale to be established for improving the selective growth-inhibitory activity of this family of compounds over that of the previously synthesized alpha,beta-acetylenic aminothiolesters DIMATE and MATE [G. Quash, G. Fournet, J. Chantepie, J. Goré, C. Ardiet, D. Ardail, Y. Michal, U. Reichert, Biochem Pharmacol 64 (2002) 1279-92]. Hence DIMATE and MATE were investigated more thoroughly for selectivity and growth-inhibitory activity using human prostate epithelial normal cells (HPENC) on the one hand and human prostate epithelial cancer cells (DU145) on the other. Unequivocal evidence was obtained showing that both compounds were reversible growth inhibitors of HPENC but irreversible growth inhibitors of DU145. Growth-inhibition of DU145 was due to the induction of early apoptosis as revealed by the flow cytometric analytical profile of inhibitor-treated cells, of the decrease in the redox potential and increase in superoxide anion content of their mitochondria. Of the two intracellular enzymes: aldehyde dehydrogenases 1 and 3 (ALDH1 and ALDH3) targeted by DIMATE and MATE, ALDH3 was inhibited to the same extent by both compounds whereas ALDH1 was less susceptible to inhibition by MATE. As the induction of ALDH3 by xenobiotics is hormone-dependent, MATE, the more selective of the two inhibitors, is a useful tool not only for examining the role of the ALDH3 isoform in hormone-sensitive and resistant prostate cancer cells in culture but also for investigating if it can inhibit the growth of xenografts of prostate cancer in immunodeficient mice.

Divergent biological effects of estradiol and diethylstilbestrol in the prostate cancer cell line MOP.

The involvement of mutated androgen receptors (mut-AR) in the actions of estrogens in prostate cancer cells is controversial. This work was designed to determine the role of such receptors in the growth inhibition by estradiol (E2) and androgens of the MOP cell line, a derivative of the LNCaP cell line. Diethylstilbestrol (DES) was used as a "tool". E2 like DHT and R1881 inhibits MOP cell proliferation while DES does not. E2 and R1881 down regulate mut-AR mRNA, DES does not. E2 enhances mut-AR transcriptional activity less efficiently than R1881 while DES does not. E2 and R1881 up regulate PSA secretion in a dose-dependent manner, DES does it marginally at 10(-6)M. MOP cells express low amounts of ERalpha and ERbeta mRNA but neither DES nor E2 and R1881 do enhance ER transcriptional activity. DES and E2 bind to mut-AR with relative binding affinities which are respectively 1/175 and 1/10 that of DHT. The E2 and androgen-repressed proliferation is prevented by DES and by the anti-androgen bicalutamide. In LNCaP cells, DES prevents the androgen-enhanced proliferation. These results strongly suggest that: (a) the putative endogenous ERs are biologically inactive in MOP cells, (b) the E2-repressed proliferation results from hormone binding to mut-AR and, (c) DES is an anti-androgen in mut-AR expressing cell line.