Background: Advanced glycation end products (AGE) are produced with normal aging. Recently, some reports indicated that the interaction between AGE and the cognate receptor (RAGE) has a role in cancer dependent.
Methods: We investigated RAGE and amphoterin mRNA expression in prostate cancer cell lines (DU145, PC-3, and LNCaP cells), hormone-refractory prostate cancer tissues, and paired untreated primary prostate cancer and normal prostate (including benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH)) tissues using real-time quantitative PCR. Moreover, to confirm the AGE-RAGE interaction in prostate cancer, DU145 cells stimulated with AGE-bovine serum albumin (AGE-BSA) were examined by in vitro matrigel assay, cell viability assay, MTT assay, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and Western blot.
Results: DU145 cells, a hormone-independent prostate cancer cell line, showed the highest RAGE mRNA expression. Amphoterin mRNA was expressed in all three cell lines. In prostate tissues, untreated prostate cancer tissue and hormone-refractory prostate cancer tissue showed higher RAGE and amphoterin mRNA expression than normal prostate tissue. The AGE-RAGE interaction induced the invasion and growth in DU145 cells stimulated with AGE-BSA.
Conclusions: The AGE-RAGE interaction is important in prostate cancer development, and inhibition of this interaction has potential as a new molecular target for cancer therapy or prevention.