In Vitro Cultivation of Primary Prostate Cancer Cells Alters the Molecular Biomarker Pattern

The high variability of primary cells propagated in vitro led us to study the expression patterns of 11 most commonly accepted and widely used biomarkers specific for prostate cancer (PC) cells in primary cell models.Primary PC cells from five PC patients were partially subjected to RNA preparation immediately and remaining cells were propagated up to 84 days followed by RNA preparation. Subsequently, biomarker mRNA quantification was performed by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and biomarker transcript concentrations before and after cultivation of primary PC cells were compared.Evaluation of androgen receptor, prostate-specific antigen, acid phosphatase, prostate-specific membrane antigen, fatty acid synthase, cytokeratin types 5/8/19, E-cadherin, epithelial cell adhesion molecule and fibroblast-specific protein 1 demonstrated temporal changes, as well as individual differences in expression, during primary PC cell propagation.Experimental design, as well as data evaluation, may need to take under consideration the high variability of biomarker expression in primary PC cells.