Epigenetic evaluation of NKX3.1 and CDH1 and immunohistochemistry expression of C-MYC, NKX3.1 and E-cadherin on tissue microarray (TMA) of pre-neoplastic and neoplastic prostate of dogs

Abstract

The canine prostate can be used as a model for a comparative study of prostate disease in humans and is the only species which occur spontaneously in the prostatic adenocarcinoma, prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia, and benign prostatic hyperplasia. The changes involved in the development of preneoplastic lesions may also play a role in tumor progression, it is important to characterize these lesions. The study will be performed on tissue microarray platforms (TMA) containing samples from different canine prostatic lesions to be assessed by immunohistochemistry. We intend to characterize this lesion in dogs using some biomarkers used in human medicine. Our research aims to identify the relationship between the expression of C-MYC protein, NKX3.1 and E-cadherin in pre-neoplastic and neoplastic canine prostate, in order to understand their role in the process of carcinogenesis. The epigenetic silencing of NKX3.1 and CDH1 is involved in prostate carcinogenesis in humans through hypermethylation. These abnormal patterns of methylation are important because they represent a change reversible, providing an important therapeutic target in human medicine. This study proposes to evaluate the methylation pattern of these genes in canine prostatic carcinoma, in order to conduct a comparative study with the methylation patterns found in human prostatic carcinoma. (AU)