Expression and significance of vasoactive intestinal peptide in prostatic carcinoma tissue and cells

Objective To study the expression of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) in prostatic adenocarcinoma and evaluate the role of VIP in tumor genesis and progress of prostatic adenocarcinoma.Methods The expression of VIP protein in 20 cases of benign prostatic hyperplasia and 39 cases of prostatic adenocarcinoma was detected by using immunohistochemical staining.The expression of VIP mRNA in 15 cases of benign prostatic hyperplasia,18 cases of prostatic adenocarcinoma and LNCaP was detected by using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).Results The expression of VIP mRNA in prostatic adenocarcinoma and LNCaP was detected,which was higher than in benign prostatic hyperplasia (P ＜ 0.05 ). The positive expression rate of VIP protein was higher in prostatic adenocarcinoma (69.23％) than that in benign prostatic hyperplasia (30.00％ ) (X2 =8.255,P ＜0.01 ).There was significant difference in the VIP expression among the differentiated pathological grades and clinical stages (X2 =6.957,P ＜ 0.05 ;X2 =6.184,P ＜ 0.05 ),and there was a correlation between VIP expression and the the differentiated pathological grade and clinical stage ( r =0.390,P ＜ 0.01 ; r =0.368,P ＜ 0.01 ).Conclusion The prostatic adenocarcinoma cells can secret VIP,indicating that VIP may play an important role in tumor genesis and progress of prostatic adenocarcinoma. Key words: Vasoactive intestinal peptide; Prostatic adenocarcinoma