BACKGROUND Despite the high incidence and serious consequences of skeletal metastasis in prostate cancer patients, the mechanisms involved in establishing secondary lesions in bone are not well-understood. In this study, the role of the mineralized bone matrix in the process of skeletal metastasis was evaluated. METHODS Attachment, migration, and proliferation responses of human prostate canc...

Docetaxel is a useful chemotherapeutic agent for the first-line treatment of hormone-refractory prostate cancer. Abnormal expression of Bcl-2 is commonly found in cancer cells, which increases their anti-apoptotic potency and chemoresistance. We investigated the effects of Bcl-2 expression status on the susceptibility of DU145 cells, an androgen-independent human prostate cancer cell line, to d...

The present study investigated the anti-tumor activity of N-(4-tertiarybutylphenyl)-4-(3-chloropyridin-2-yl)tetrahydropyrazine-1(2H)-carbox-amide (BCTC), a potent and specific inhibitor of transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily M member 8 (TRPM8) in prostate cancer (PCa) DU145 cells. TRPM8 expression in DU145 and normal prostate PNT1A cells was detected by reverse transcription p...

OBJECTIVE To explore the antiprostate cancer effects of Celastrol on prostate cancer cells' proliferation, apoptosis, and cell cycle distribution, as well as the correlation to the regulation of hERG. METHODS DU145 cells were treated with various concentrations of Celastrol (0.25-16.0 μmol/L) for 0-72 hours. MTT assay was used to evaluate the inhibition effect of Celastrol on the growth of DU...

Autophagic responses to chemotherapeutic agents may vary greatly among different prostate cancer cells and have not been well characterized. In this study, we showed that valproic acid (VPA) induced conversion of LC3-I to LC3-II and formation of LC3 puncta, the typical markers of autophagy, in LNCaP and PC-3 cells. However, these markers were undetectable in DU145 cells upon autophagic stimulat...

BACKGROUND The chemoresistance of prostate cancer (PCa) is invariably associated with the aggressiveness and metastasis of this disease. New emerging evidence indicates that the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) may play pivotal roles in the development of chemoresistance and metastasis. As a hallmark of EMT, E-cadherin is suggested to be a key marker in the development of chemoresista...

HS1 associated protein X-1 (HAX-1), a substrate of Src family tyrosine kinases, plays a critical role in cell apoptosis. However, its functions in prostate cancer remains unclear. The present study explored the role and mechanism of HAX-1 in cancer cell apoptosis. The mRNA and protein levels of HAX-1 in the prostate cancer cell lines PC-3, VCaP and DU145 were assessed. Cell proliferation, apopt...