Experimental study of apoptosis in the prostate tissue following castration

Subject Areas : Veterinary Clinical Pathology

یوسف  Doustar ¹ (Department of Pathobiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch, Tabriz, Iran)
Ali  Rezaie ² (Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch, Tabriz, Iran)
صابر  Atash Benab ³ (Graduate of Veterinary Medicine, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch, Tabriz, Iran)

Received: 2007-06-26 Accepted : 2008-05-19 Published : 2008-02-20

Keywords: Apoptosis, prostate gland, castration,

Abstract :

The Prostate gland is one of the accessory reproductive glands with important physiological functions necessary for successful reproduction. This gland depends on the presence of sex hormones including androgens for its natural function and normal growth and development. So in the case of hyperplasia, hypertrophy or other prostatic disease the most successful and efficient method of treatment is androgenic control that in some cases is unavoidable. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of androgenic depletion states by means of castration on the induction of apoptosis in the epithelial glandular cells of the prostate tissue. Two groups of male dogs each containing 5 animals per group were used in this study. The dogs were under observation for 1 month to detect any possible diseases or disorders. After this period the dogs in the treatment group underwent open castration to decrease the levels of the androgenic hormones in the blood while the dogs in the control group were left intact. One week after surgery, the prostate glands of control and treatment animals were collected and used to prepare microscopic sections. The sections were evaluated following staining with TUNEL (TerminaldeoxyNucleotidyl (dUTP) transferase-mediated End Labeling) and H&E methods. The Mann – Whitney U test was used for statistical analysis. Histopathological studies in the treatment group revealed the presence of various forms of apoptotic cells in the glandular epithelium. Average number of apoptotic cells in ten microscopic fields were significantly higher in the treatment group compared with the control group (p<0.005). These results demonstrated that the type of cell death observed in the prostate gland in androgen deprivation states is Apoptosis.  

References:

1. باقرزاده اسکویی، ف. (1380): بررسی پاتولوژیکی بیماری‌های پروستات در سگ‌های ولگرد شهرستان تبریز، پایان‎نامه جهت دریافت دکترای عمومی دامپزشکی، دانشکدة دامپزشکی دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی واحد تبریز. صفحات: 35-20.


2. پوستی، ا. (1373): بافت‎شناسی مقایسه‎ای، انتشارات دانشگاه تهران، صفحات: 478-470.


3. دوستار، ی. (1383): مطالعة آپوپتوزیس القاء شده توسط ویروس عامل بیماری بورس عفونی جوجه‌ها با استفاده از متد تشخیصی تانل و میکروسکوپ الکترونی، دکترای تخصصی آسیب‎شناسی دامپزشکی، دانشکدة دامپزشکی دانشگاه تهران، صفحات: 184-180.


4. گایتون، آ.، ترجمة شادان، ف. (1381): انتشارات چهر، تجدید نظر دهم، صفحات: 965-879.


5. Catz, S.D., and Johnson, J.L. (2003): BCL-2 in prostate cancer. Apoptosis, 36: 29-37.


6. Colombel, M.C. and Buttyan, R. (1995): Hormonal control of apoptosis. Methods in Cell Biology, 46: 369-85.


7. John ston, S.D. (2000): Prostatic disorders in the dog. Animal Reproduction Science, 24: 405-515.


8. Kothakota, S. (1997): The role of caspase-3 and apoptosis. Molecullar and Cellular Science, Westerin Endocrinology, pp: 278, 294-298.


9. Martikainen, P. and Isaacs J. (1999): Role of calcium in the programmed death of rat prostatic       glandular cells. Urogenital Journal, 17: 175-187.


10. Nickerson, T., Pollak, M. and Huynh, H. (1998): Castration-induced apoptosis in the rat ventral prostate is associated with increased expression of genes encoding insulin-like growth factor binding proteins 2, 3, 4 and 5. Endocrinology, 139: 807-810.


11. Perlman, H., Zhang, X., Chen, M.W., Walsh, K. and Buttyan, R. (1999): An elevated bax/bcl2 ratio corresponds with the onset of prostate epithelial cell apoptosis. Cell Death Diffier., 1: 48-54.


12. Pierre A. and Bater, Z. (1997): Estardiol activates P60, P53/56 and renatured P50/55 protein tyrosine kinases in the dog prostate. Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology, 7: 25-34.


13. Tara, N. Michael, P. and Hung, H. (1998): Castration-induced apoptosis in the rat ventral prostate is associated with increased expression of genes encoding insulin-like growth factor binding proteins 2, 3, 4 and 5. Endocrinology. 139: 2, 807-810


14. Wong, P., Pineault, J., Lakins, J. and Taillefer, D. (1993): Genomic organization and expression of the rat TRPM-2 gene, a gene implicated in apoptosis. J. Biol. Chem., 268: 5021-5031


15. Zhang, Y. and Acad, N. (2002): Castration induced apoptosis of prostatic epithelium to the use of apoptotic genes in the treatment of prostate cancer. New YorkAcademy of Sciences, 963: 191-203.