Expression of Heat Shock Protein 27 in Prostate Cancer Cell Lines According to the Extent of Malignancy and Doxazosin Treatment

PURPOSE: Heat shock protein 27 (HSP27) is known as the material that plays a role in apoptosis control in tumor and cell protection including the immune response, drug tolerance, and so on. In this study, HSP27 expression according to the prostate cancer malignancy level was evaluated, and HSP27 expression was also analyzed after inducing apoptosis by doxazosin treatment of the prostate cancer cell lines. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunofluorescence staining of the HSP27 was implemented by the culture of RWPE-1, LNCaP, androgen-independent human prostate cancer cells (PC-3), and TSU-Pr1 cell lines. Analysis was separately conducted in the control group, control vector group treated by dimethyl sulfoxide, and groups treated with 10 µM or 25 µM doxazosin. The expression of HSP27 in RT-PCR and immunofluorescence staining was observed and evaluated after conversion to numerical values. RESULTS: In the RT-PCR results, depending on the cell type, LNCaP, TSU-Pr1 showed the highest HSP27 expression followed by PC-3, LNCaP and RWPE-1 in sequence. After doxazosin treatment, the expression detected by RT-PCR was stronger at a 25-µM doxazosin concentration compared to that at a 10-µM concentration, and the result was similar by immunofluorescence staining. CONCLUSIONS: HSP27 expression increased depending on the prostate cancer cell line. This meant that HSP27 expression was related to the prostate cancer malignancy level. Additionally, the higher the treatment concentration in PC-3 was, the higher the HSP27 expression was. This result showed that doxazosin induced apoptosis of prostate cancer.