Expression analysis of thirty one Y chromosome genes in human prostate cancer

Rapid advances in positional cloning studies have identified most of the genes on the human Y chromosome, thereby providing resources for studying the expression of its genes in prostate cancer. Using a semiquantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) procedure, we had examined the expression of the Y chromosome genes in a panel of prostate samples diagnosed with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), low and/or high grade carcinoma, and the prostatic cell line, LNCaP, stimulated by androgen treatment. Results from this expression analysis of 31 of the 33 genes, isolated so far from the Y chromosome, revealed three types of expression patterns: i) specific expression in other tissues (e.g., AMELY, BPY1, BPY2, CDY, and RBM); ii) ubiquitous expression among prostate and control testis samples, similar to those of house-keeping genes (e.g., ANT3, XE7,ASMTL, IL3RA, SYBL1, TRAMP, MIC2, DBY, RPS4Y, and SMCY); iii) differential expression in prostate and testis samples. The last group includes X-Y homologous (e.g., ZFY, PRKY, DFFRY, TB4Y, EIF1AY, and UTY) and Y-specific genes (e.g., SRY, TSPY, PRY, and XKRY). Androgen stimulation of the LNCaP cells resulted in up-regulation of PGPL, CSFR2A, IL3RA, TSPY, and IL9R and down regulation of SRY, ZFY, and DFFRY. The heterogeneous and differential expression patterns of the Y chromosome genes raise the possibility that some of these genes are either involved in or are affected by the oncogenic processes of the prostate. The up- and down-regulation of several Y chromosome genes by androgen suggest that they may play a role(s) in the hormonally stimulated proliferation of the responsive LNCaP cells.