Amphoterin, the major product of the high mobility group-1 gene, is a ligand associated with cancer invasion and metastasis through activation of the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE). Expression of amphoterin and RAGE was examined in prostatectomy specimens from 40 patients with pT3 prostate cancer (18 non-metastatic and 22 metastatic) preoperatively treated with lutenizing hormone-releasing hormone (LH-RH) agonist. Amphoterin expression was detected in tumor cells of 6 (27%) metastatic and 0 non-metastatic cases (p<0.0001). Amphoterin was also detected in prostatic stromal cells of 14 (63%) metastatic cases and 2 (11%) non-metastatic cases (p=0.0010). RAGE production was detected in cancer cells of 16 (73%) metastatic and 6 (33%) non-metastatic cases (p=0.0244). A total of 2 (22%) non-metastatic and 16 (73%) metastatic cases showed co-expression of amphoterin and RAGE in tumor cells or in tumor cells and stromal cells (p=0.0001). The in vitro invasive capacity of PC-3, a prostatic cancer cell line that co-expressed amphoterin and RAGE, was suppressed by treatment with amphoterin antisense S-oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN). Primary cultured human prostatic stromal cells secreted no amphoterin; however, amphoterin secretion was induced by androgen deprivation. The conditioned medium of human prostatic stromal cells deprived of androgen recovered the in vitro invasive capacity of PC-3 cells suppressed by amphoterin antisense S-ODN. These results suggest that androgen deprivation provides a paracrine interaction between cancer and stromal cells through the RAGE-amphoterin system in advanced prostate cancer.

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