File:Prostate stem cell cartoon.png

A model of the profiles of fetal PSC and adult PSC indicating commonalities and differences and the manner by which these may alter in proliferative prostatic diseases.

Common and distinctive signaling pathways as well as molecules participating in the regulation of self-renewal in fetal PSC and in quiescence in adult PSC were revealed by our gene profiling studies. The unbalanced scales represent possible perturbations in adult PSC that result in the overexpression of certain proto-oncogenes that promote SC self-renewal while other elements that promote differentiation are suppressed, thus leading to deregulated growth. The indicated candidate genes were detected as PSC-related genes that are aberrantly expressed in prostate tumors. Their expression may contribute to the etiology of abnormal PSC proliferation leading to escape from dormancy and unrestrained self-renewal culminating in benign prostate hyperplasia or prostate tumors.

Original file name: Figure 4. Journal-1.pone.0005722.g004.png

Reference

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0005722

Citation: Blum R, Gupta R, Burger PE, Ontiveros CS, Salm SN, et al. (2009) Molecular Signatures of Prostate Stem Cells Reveal Novel Signaling Pathways and Provide Insights into Prostate Cancer. PLoS ONE 4(5): e5722. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0005722

Editor: Mikhail V. Blagosklonny, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, United States of America

Received: February 13, 2009; Accepted: April 3, 2009; Published: May 29, 2009

Copyright: © 2009 Blum et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.