Ethnic differences in TGFß-signaling pathway may contribute to prostate cancer health disparity

Bethtrice Elliott, De Adra L. Zackery, Vanessa A. Eaton, Re'Josef T. Jones, Fisseha Abebe, Camille C. Ragin, Shafiq A. Khan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

Epidemiological studies show that the incidence and mortality rates of prostate cancer (PCa) are significantly higher in African-American (AA) men when compared with Caucasian (CA) men in the United States. Transforming growth factor ß (TGFß) signaling pathway is linked to health disparities in AAs. Recent studies suggest a role of TGFß3 in cancer metastases and its effect on the migratory and invasive behavior however, its role in PCa in AA men has not been studied. We determined the circulating levels of TGFß3 in AA and CA men diagnosed with PCa using ELISA. We analyzed serum samples from both AA and CA men diagnosed with and without PCa. We show that AA PCa patients had higher levels of TGFß3 protein compared with AA controls and CA patients. In fact, TGFß3 protein levels in serum were higher in AA men without PCa compared with the CA population, which may correlate with more aggressive disease seen in AA men. Studies on AA-derived PCa cell lines revealed that TGFß3 protein levels were also higher in these cells compared with CA-derived PCa cell lines. Our studies also reveal that TGFß does not inhibit cell proliferation in AA-derived PCa cell lines, but it does induce migration and invasion through activation of PI3K pathway. We suggest that increased TGFß3 levels are responsible for development of aggressive PCa in AA patients as a consequence of development of resistance to inhibitory effects of TGFß on cell proliferation and induction of invasive metastatic behavior.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)546-555
Number of pages10
JournalCarcinogenesis
Volume39
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 5 2018

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