Metrics details. This mouse model of human TSPY gene offers an opportunity to examine its behavior and potential contribution in various mouse models of human diseases, such as human cancers.
We had investigated the expression of such TSPY -transgene in the LADY mouse model of prostate cancer, harboring a SV40 T antigen gene directed by a rat probasin promoter; and compared the expression pattern with those of endogenous TSPY gene and biomarkers in human prostate cancer specimens. Our data show that human TSPY could be abnormally activated during prostatic oncogenesis, and could possibly contribute to the heterogeneity of prostate cancer.
The differential expression patterns of the human TSPY between the LADY mouse model and clinical prostate cancer suggest potential limitations of current mouse models for studies of either TSPY behavior in diseased conditions or prostate cancer development. Prostate cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers among men. More than , new cases are diagnosed each year, and more than 30, people die from prostate cancer in United States in report of National Cancer Institute, United States [ 1 ].
The etiology of prostate cancer is currently uncertain, and might follow a gradual transformation of normal prostate epithelium to prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia PIN , and to locally invasive carcinoma and metastatic disease [ 2 , 3 ]. Prostate cancer initiation, development and progression are complex processes, involving multiple environmental and genetic risk factors and co-carcinogenic processes between epithelia and stroma of the prostate at different stages [ 4 — 8 ]. Since prostate cancer is a man-specific cancer, the contribution of genes on the male-only Y chromosome have been suspected, but remains controversial due to contradictory observations on the gain and loss of this chromosome in samples of numerous tumor types [ 9 — 13 ].
The complete sequencing of the human genome [ 14 ], particularly the Y chromosome [ 15 ], has provided significant information on the genetic content of the human Y chromosome; thereby providing an opportunity to evaluate independently the various genes on this male-specific portion of the human genome. Among the genes on the human Y chromosome, the testis-specific protein Y-encoded TSPY gene represents the most likely gene potentially contributing to the complex etiology of prostate cancer [ 16 ].
