GADD45? methylation is more common in benign prostatic hyperplasia than in prostate cancer

Abstract

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common cancer types worldwide in men. Although Growth Arrest DNA Damage-Inducible 45 (GADD45) family members, GADD45? , GADD45? and GADD45? , are responsible for the activation of several molecules in certain cellular pathways affecting cell fate, including tumorigenesis, as stress sensors, the role of GADD45? in PCa is still not clear. In this study, our aim was to detect the methylation and protein expression profiles of GADD45? in benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) (60 patients) and PCa (56 patients). The methylation of GADD45? was determined by methylation-sensitive high resolution melting analysis. Immunohistochemistry was used for evaluating GADD45? protein expression. The methylation frequency for GADD45? was as low as 1.8% in PCa compared with BPH (P=0.000). GADD45? protein was overexpressed in PCa cases (53.6%) compared with the BPH cases (33.3%), and the difference was statistically different (P=0.028). There was no correlation between GADD45? methylation and protein expression in both groups. This study shows that in contrast to hematological malignencies, GADD45? methylation is not one of the common epigenetic changes in PCa. In addition, we suggest that the loss of important regulatory mechanisms involved in GADD45? might play a role in the pathogenesis of BPH.