Gene Expression of Aurora Kinases in Prostate Cancer and Nodular Hyperplasia Tissues

OBJECTIVE: To measure the transcript levels of Aurora kinases and compare them to their immunoreactivity patterns in prostate tumors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 26 cases of prostate cancer (PCa) and 38 cases of benign nodular hyperplasia (BPH) were sampled from archived formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues. Tissue sections were lysed, total RNA extracted and cDNA made by random hexamer priming while slide sections were immunostained for the kinases. Normalized relative quantitation was performed for all the kinases using real-time PCR on TaqMan chemistry. RESULTS: The immunoreactivity profile showed 15.4, 53.8 and 30.7% positivity for Aurora kinases A, B and C in PCa cases, respectively, while the positivity was 76.3, 73.7 and 84.2% for the same kinases in BPH cases. The immunoreactivity was preponderant on epithelial tissue compared to stromal component. CONCLUSION: Aurora kinases were significantly overexpressed in BPH cases compared to PCa cases. At the transcript level, there was no significant differential expression in the kinases between PCa and BPH cases.