Role of high expression levels of CXCR4 in tumor growth, vascularization, and metastasis

SPECIFIC AIMSRecent reports suggest a crucial role for high levels of CXCR4 expression in the metastatic process, however these studies do not distinguish between the role of CXCR4 in the arrest of tumor cells on endothelium, extravasation into target tissue, or initial survival, growth, vascularization, and invasiveness within target tissue. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of high expression levels of chemokine receptor CXCR4 on prostate tumor growth in vitro and in vivo. We examined the expression pattern of CXCR4 and CXCL12 in prostate cancer cell lines, human prostate cancer xenografts, and in primary human prostate cancers. We next studied the effect of overexpressing CXCR4 on in vivo tumor growth, angiogenesis, and metastasis, and its effect on in vitro proliferation and migration of human hormone refractory prostate cancer cell lines.PRINCIPAL FINDINGS1. CXCR4 overexpression correlates with prostate cancer metastasisImmunohistochemical staining showed CXCR4 expression in almost al...