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*Prostate Cancer
Endocrinology Vol. 140, No. 11 5303-5309
Copyright © 1999 by The Endocrine Society


ARTICLES

Expression of Activin A and Follistatin Core Proteins by Human Prostate Tumor Cell Lines

Stephen J. McPherson, Sally L. Mellor, Hong Wang, Lee W. Evans, Nigel P. Groome and Gail P. Risbridger

Institute of Reproduction and Development (S.J.M., S.L.M., H.W., G.P.R.), 27–31 Wright St, Clayton, Victoria, Australia, 3168; Department of Biological and Molecular Sciences (L.W.E., N.P.G.), Oxford Brookes University, Headington, Oxford, OX3 0BP, United Kingdom

Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Associate Professor G. P. Risbridger, Institute of Reproduction and Development, 27–31 Wright Street, Clayton, Victoria, Australia 3168. E-mail: gail. risbridger{at}med.monash.edu.au


    Abstract
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
Activin and follistatin (FS) messenger RNA and protein are expressed and localized to human prostate tissue from men with high grade cancer and to human prostate tumor cell lines LNCaP, DU145, and PC3. Although activin A induces apoptosis and inhibits cell proliferation in LNCaP cells, PC3 cells are insensitive to the effect of exogenous addition of activin A. The results of this study show that activin A and FS are produced and can be measured by specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays in PC3 cells and media but are not detectable in LNCaP cells. Over 10 days in culture, the production of activin A by PC3 cells declines and is inversely correlated (r = -0.779) to FS288 production, which steadily increases and is significantly elevated compared with Day 1 of culture. The presence of FS288 and FS315 proteins was confirmed by immunocytochemistry and showed that only PC3 cells produced the FS288 isoform. Western blotting of PC3 cell media confirmed the presence of the FS288 isoform. Blockade of FS288 activity with a neutralizing antibody rendered PC3 cells responsive to activin A, as measured by inhibition of proliferation. Collectively, these results suggest that PC3 tumor cells are insensitive to activin A because they produce measurable amounts of activin ligand and FS288 protein, which is capable of blocking the autocrine response of these cells to activin A.


    Introduction
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
FOLLISTATIN (FS) is a monomeric glycosylated protein that was identified by its ability to suppress pituitary secretion of FSH (1). Cloning of the FS gene revealed the presence of follistatin core proteins consisting of 288 and 315 amino acids i.e. FS288 and FS315, which arise from alternative splicing of the FS messenger RNA (mRNA) (2, 3). A number of molecular weight forms of FS have been identified in biological fluids that are due to truncation and glycosylation of the core proteins (4). An important role for FS resides in its ability to bind the activin growth factors; the affinity of FS for activin is high, the Kd is estimated as 50–900 pM (5, 6, 7). This is very similar to the affinity of activins for their receptors, and in many cells and tissues the bioactivity of activin A can be neutralized by FS (8, 9). Follistatin has been reported in many tissues, which express and respond to activin (10, 11, 12).

We have reported that activin and FS are expressed and localized to human prostate tissue from men with high grade cancer (13), and the expression of mRNAs for the activin subunits and the activin receptors has been recorded in the commonly studied human prostate tumor cell lines, LNCaP, DU145, and PC3 (14, 15, 16, 17, 18). One of these lines, the LNCaP tumor cells, is responsive to activin A and growth inhibition occurs by inhibiting cell proliferation and inducing apoptosis (14, 15, 19). However, this response is not manifested by the PC3 cells, which are insensitive to activin A; the response by the DU145 cells to activin A is intermediate (14). The action of activin ligands occurs through the activin receptors that are known to be expressed in all three tumor cell lines. The relative levels of the receptor mRNAs or proteins may differ between cells or, as in the case of colon cancers that are resistant to TGFß, the receptors may be mutated and inactive (20). However, before receptor binding and signaling, access of activin A ligand to receptors may be regulated through the activin binding protein follistatin. We have also reported that the expression of FS by the three cell lines is different; all three lines expressed FS315 mRNA, but only the PC3 cells had detectable expression of FS288 mRNA (14). These observations have led us to postulate that the differential response to activin A is due, in part, to a different pattern of FS protein expression. Until recently, it has not been possible to test this hypothesis, but the development of new, specific antibodies for the detection of FS288 and FS315 by immunostaining (10, 13) and the development of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the measurement of FS288 (21), now makes these studies possible. Thus, the aims of this study were to compare the localization of the FS proteins to LNCaP and PC3 cells by immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis, and to measure the production of activin A and FS288 by specific ELISA.


    Materials and Methods
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
Prostate tumor cell lines
Human prostate tumor cell lines PC3 and LNCaP were obtained from American Type Culture Collection (Rockville, MD). Cell lines were routinely cultured in DMEM (Life Technologies, Inc., Grand Island, NY) with 10% heat inactivated FCS (CSL Limited, Parkville, Victoria, Australia) and antibiotics (100 UI/ml penicillin and 10 µg/ml streptomycin; CSL Limited) in 75 cm2 culture flasks (Falcon; Becton Dickinson and Co., Labware, Franklin Lakes, NJ) at 37 C in a humidified atmosphere of 5% CO2 in air. Cells were passaged twice weekly by trypsinization. When used in test cultures, cells were plated to provide subconfluent monolayers before the addition of test substances.

Growth factors and other reagents
Human recombinant activin A was kindly provided by Biotech Australia Pty. Ltd. (East Roseville, New South Wales, Australia). Human recombinant follistatin 288 (hrFS288) was obtained from the National Hormone and Pituitary Program (Rockville, MD). Activin A was stored freeze-dried in 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid/acetonitrile and reconstituted in DMEM for use in cell cultures. FS288 was stored freeze dried at -70 C. For use in ELISAs FS was reconstituted in 1 x PBS + 0.1% BSA (Sigma, St. Louis, MO) and stored at -20 C in aliquots of 500ng/ml. Mouse IgG1 monoclonal antiserum was obtained from DAKO Corp. A/S (Glostrup, Denmark) and used as a negative control. Tritiated thymidine (3H-thymidine) was purchased from NEN Life Science Products (Boston, MA).

Human recombinant follistatin 315 (hrFS315) was kindly provided by Professor H. Sugino (Institute for Enzyme Research, Tokushima, Japan).

Follistatin antibodies
A monoclonal antibody (17/2) to human recombinant FS288 was raised by Evans et al. (21) and has previously been used for the detection of FS288 by an ultra sensitive 2-site ELISA in pregnant female human serum (21). The same antibody has also been used for localization of FS288 by immunohistochemical methods (10).

The monoclonal antibody H10 was produced in Balb/c mice against a synthetic peptide (sequence: C-D-E-D-Q-D-Y-S-F-P-I-S-S-I-L-E-W) corresponding to the C-terminus of human FS315 (22) using a procedure previously described by Groome et al., 1996 (23). The specificity of the purified antibody was tested by a screening ELISA in which purified antibodies were titrated across ELISA plates coated with hrFS288, or hrFS315, H10 Ab showed immunoreactivity to hrFS315 but not to hrFS288, indicating the H10 Ab recognizes an epitope present in FS315 but not FS288.

Immunolocalization of FS proteins to prostate tumor cell lines
To localize FS proteins, PC3 and LNCaP cells were seeded at a concentration of 2500 cells/well on 96 well plates (Falcon) and cultured in DMEM + 5% charcoal-stripped FCS for 3 days. The media was removed, the cells were washed with PBS (10 mM) and fixed with Bouins fixative for 15 min at room temperature. The cells were subsequently washed twice in 70% ethanol and stored at 4 C in 70% ethanol before imunolocalization of FS.

The cells were washed in PBS, incubated with 6% H2O2 in PBS for 30 min, and incubated with 0.2% Triton X-100 in PBS for 15 min. After blocking with CAS Blocking solution (DAKO Corp.) for 2 h, the cells were exposed to primary antibodies overnight at 4 C. H10 (FS315 antibody) was used at a concentration of 6.75 µg/ml and 17/2 (FS288 antibody) was used at a concentration of 10 µg/ml. Following washing, the cells were incubated with biotinylated horse antimouse IgG (1/150; Vector Laboratories, Inc., Burlingame, CA) for 60 min. After three washes, the cells were incubated with the Vectastain Elite ABC Kit (Vector) for 60 min, washed, and peroxide activity was detected using a liquid 3,3'-diaminobenzidine tetrahydrochloride substrate kit (Zymed Laboratories, Inc., San Francisco, CA).

Concentration-matched mouse IgG was used as negative control for the H10 and 17/2 antibodies. In addition, the H10 Ab was preabsorbed by FS315 peptide. Preabsorption was performed by incubation of H10 with 10 times excess of FS315 peptide at 4 C. The mixture was centrifuged at 12,000 rpm, and supernatant was used for immunocyto- chemistry.

Measurement of FS production by prostate tumor cell lines
LNCaP or PC3 cells were plated at 0.5 x 105 cells/well in six-well plates (Falcon) in DMEM + 5% FCS and cells and conditioned media were collected daily for 10 days. The production of FS by human tumor cells was quantitated using an ultra-sensitive ELISA (21). Briefly, cells were lysed in lysis buffer [0.01M PBS; 0.1% vol/vol Triton X-100; 0.1% wt/vol BSA (Sigma)] then conditioned media and cell lysates were diluted, 1/40 and 1/10, respectively, in dissociating solution [84 mmol sodium deoxycholate; 3.4% vol/vol Tween-20; 5% wt/vol BSA; 5%vol/vol mouse serum (Sigma); 0.01 M PBS]. Standard material (hrFS288) was serially diluted in dissociating solution to give a standard range of 2.5 ng/ml–19.5 pg/ml. Duplicate 50 µl aliquots of standard or samples were added to ELISA plates coated with 29/9 monoclonal Ab, sealed and left overnight in a sealed humidified container at room temperature. Plates were then washed and 50 µl of alkaline phosphatase-conjugated 17/2 antibody in Tris conjugate buffer (25 mM Tris-HCl; 0.15 M NaCl; 1% wt/vol BSA; 0.5% vol/vol Tween 20) was added to each well. After 2 h incubation, plates were washed and 50 µl alkaline phosphatase substrate (ELISA Amplification System; Life Technologies, Inc. Ltd, Renfrewshire, UK) was added per well. Plates were incubated for 2 h at room temperature then 50 µl of alkaline phosphatase amplifier (from previously mentioned kit) was added to each well. Color development was stopped by addition of 50 µl/well 0.4 M HCl and absorbances were read at 492 nm with 630 nm reference wavelength on a Multiscan RC microplate reader (Labsystems and Life Sciences International UK Ltd., Basingstoke, UK) using Genesis software (Life Sciences).

Measurement of activin A production by prostate tumor cell lines
To quantitate production of activin A by PC3 and LNCaP prostate tumor cells, a sensitive and specific ELISA previously used to determine total activin A in human serum and follicular fluid (24) was utilized. Briefly, cell lysates and standard material (hr-activin A) were diluted in PBS + 1% BSA, and unconditioned media and media samples were diluted in DMEM + 5% FCS. Standard material was serially diluted to give a range of 2.5–0.005 ng/ml, whereas media and lysate test samples were used at neat or 1/10 dilutions. Samples and standard dilutions were denatured by the addition of an equal volume (125 µl) of 6% SDS (wt/vol) followed by heating to 90-95 C for 4 min and allowed to cool for 20 min at room temperature. Standards and samples were subsequently oxidized by the addition of 20 µl 30% H2O2. 25 µl of ELISA diluent (0.1 M Tris-HCl; 5% wt/vol BSA; 5% vol/vol Triton X-100; 0.1% wt/vol NaN3) was added to all wells of dry E4 monoclonal antibody-coated ELISA plates. Duplicate 100 µl aliquots of standard or test samples were added, and the plates were left overnight in a humidified container at room temperature. Plates were then washed and 50 µl of biotinylated E4 antibody (diluted 1:1300 in ELISA diluent) was added for 2 h before plates were washed again. Fifty microliters alkaline phosphatase conjugated streptavidin (diluted 1/1000 in ELISA diluent) was added to all wells for 2 h, then plates were washed and alkaline phosphatase bound to the well was quantitated using the same detection system used for FS ELISAs (ELISA Amplification System; Life Technologies, Inc.) as described above. Detection limits of the assays were determined to be approximately 10 pg/ml.

Induction of response to activin A in PC3 cells
To block or neutralize endogenous FS production, increasing concentrations of the 17/2 antibody were added to the tumor cells before testing the subsequent response to activin A. PC3 cells were plated in 96-well plates at 5000 cells/well in DMEM + 5% FCS. Cells were left for 48 h at 37 C in humidified atmosphere in 5% CO2. After cells had attached to wells, media was changed to fresh DMEM + 5% FCS and 17/2 antibody or activin A were added. Increasing concentrations of 17/2 antibody or concentration matched mouse IgG control (10, 20,40 µg/ml) were added to cells in the presence or absence of a constant dose of activin A (40 ng/ml). After 2 days of culture, the effects of antibodies and growth factors was determined by the addition of 3H-thymidine (0.5 µCi/ml) for the last 20 h of culture. Cells were harvested using a Micromate 196 Cell Harvester (Packard Instrument Co., Meriden, CT), and levels of 3H-thymidine incorporated were determined.

Western blotting
To detect FS proteins by Western blot, cell-conditioned media were collected from LNCaP and PC3 prostate tumor cells, and media were freeze dried. Media samples were reconstituted in 0.1 M PBS and run on a 12.5% polyacrylamide nonreducing gel and separated proteins were transferred to a 0.22 µm pore size Optitran BA-S reinforced nitrocellulose transfer membrane (Schleicher & Schuell, Inc., Dassell, Germany) at 30 V overnight in transfer buffer containing 20 mM Tris base, 150 mM glycine, 20% vol/vol methanol. After transfer, membrane was stained with Ponceau S stain (Sigma) to identify molecular weight marker proteins, and was blocked for 1 h with 5% powdered milk in 0.01 M PBS. The membrane was then incubated with primary antibodies for FS288 (17/2) or FS315 (H10) at a concentration of 1 µg/ml in 1% milk/0.01 M PBS/0.1% Tween 20 for 2 h, then washed 5 x 3 min in 1% milk/PBS/Tween. The second antibody used was a horseradish peroxidase conjugated goat antimouse IgG (DAKO Corp.) at a dilution of 1/10000 in 1% milk/PBS/Tween for 1 h followed by 5 x 3 min washes as described above. Solution A and solution B of the ECL+Plus Western blotting detection system (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech UK Limited, Little Chalfont, Buckinghamshire, UK) were warmed to room temperature then mixed at a ration of 40:1 and added to the membrane. Membrane was then exposed to X-OMAT x-ray film (Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, NY) and signal was analyzed after 2.5 min.

Data analysis
Each experiment was repeated at least three times. Where statistical analysis was undertaken, variation was determined by ANOVA and differences were tested using Student’s t test: P < 0.05 (two tailed) was considered significant.


    Results
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
Specific ELISAs for activin A and FS288 were used to measure activin and FS288 production by the PC3 and LNCaP cell lines. Levels of activin A and FS288 were only measurable in cell lysates and in the medium from cultured PC3 cells and not LNCaP cells. Using an initial plating density of 50,000 cells/well cells were allowed to proliferate in culture until cells reached confluency and cell numbers plateaued after approximately 6- 7 days (Fig. 1AGo).



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Figure 1. Measurement of activin A and FS288 production by PC3 prostate tumor cell lines. Cell lysates and conditioned media were collected daily from LNCaP and PC3 cells in culture and activin A and FS288 levels were measured by specific ELISA. Figure 1AGo shows change in PC3 cell number over the course of the 10-day culture period. Values represent mean ± SD of five replicate wells. Figure 1BGo shows daily cellular content of activin A ({blacktriangleup}) and FS288 ({blacksquare}) (shown as ng protein/106 cells/day) in PC3 cell lysates collected at 24 h intervals over 10 days in culture. Values represent mean ± SD of five replicate wells. Figure 1CGo shows the daily activin A ({blacktriangleup}) and FS288 ({blacksquare}) levels measured in cell-conditioned media collected at 24-h intervals over 10 days in culture (ng protein/106 cells/day). *, Significant difference to activin A or FS288 levels on Day 1 (P < 0.05). Values represent mean ± SD of four replicate wells. The sum cumulative levels of activin A and FS288 produced by PC3 cells over the course of the culture (ng of protein/106 cells) are shown in Fig. 1DGo. All figures are representative of three separate experiments.

 
Measurement of daily production of activin A and FS288 in PC3 cell lysates showed no significant (P < 0.05) change in ligand levels from Day 1 to Day 10 (Fig. 1BGo) although FS288 levels remained approximately 2- to 3-fold greater than activin A.

In contrast to the stable levels of activin A and FS288 observed in cell lysates, measurement of daily production of activin A and FS288 in PC3 cell conditioned media (Fig. 1CGo) revealed that activin A levels in media were initially high but gradually decreased until a significant reduction in production was observed after 5 days in culture (P < 0.05, compared with Day 1); thereafter, levels of daily activin A production remained constant. The daily levels of FS288 in conditioned media were initially low but increased steadily, reaching a significantly higher level (P < 0.05) after 6 days, which plateaued and remained approximately 2-fold higher than that seen over the first 5 days in culture (Fig. 1CGo). In PC3 cell conditioned media, daily FS288 production was inversely correlated to daily activin A production (r = -0.7719, P = 0.008). Overall, it can be seen that production of activin A and FS288 by PC3 cells continued over the entire culture period, although the rate of activin production decreased with time in culture, whereas rate of production of FS288 increased, especially over the last 5 days in culture (Fig. 1DGo).

Immunoreactive FS protein was detected in LNCaP and PC3 tumor cells using the antibody to FS315, H10 (Fig. 2AGo, B). No positive staining was recorded if the antibody was preabsorbed with FS315 peptide or if concentration matched mouse IgG was used (data not shown). In contrast, immunoreactivity for FS288 (using the 17/2 antibody) was only detected in the PC3 cell line and not in the LNCaP cells (Fig. 2Go, C and D). To confirm the presence of FS288 and FS315 immunoreactivity in the cells, Western blot analysis of PC3 and LNCaP media was performed. As shown in Fig. 3AGo, using 17/2 antibody, two isoforms of FS288 were present in media from PC3 cells but were not detected in media from LNCaP cells or in hrFS315. Using the H10 antibody, two to three isoforms of FS315 protein were detected by Western blot (Fig. 3BGo); no corresponding bands were detected in media from LNCaP or PC3 and nothing was detected in hrFS288 protein.



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Figure 2. Immunolocalization of FS315 and FS288 to PC3 and LNCaP cell lines. Positive immunoreactivity for FS315 localized to the cytoplasm of the epithelial tumor cell lines LNCaP (A) and PC3 (B) using H10 antibody, no immunoreactivity was present if the antibody was preabsorbed with FS315 peptide (inset A, inset B). Using Ab 17/2, positive immunoreactivity for FS288 was only detected in PC3 cells (D) but not in LNCaP cells (C). Mouse IgG antibody controls were negative (inset C, inset D). Bar, 50 µm; magnification, x140.

 


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Figure 3. Western blots for FS288 and FS315 from prostate tumor cell lines. FS288 proteins were detected with 17/2 antibody as shown in Fig. 3AGo. Protein bands corresponding to the approximate 31 and 35K molecular weight isoforms of FS were detected in PC3 media (lane 2) and lanes containing hrFS288 protein (lane 1). No bands were detected in lanes containing media from LNCaP cells (lane 4) or hrFS315 protein (lane 3). FS315 proteins corresponding to 35, 39, and 42K molecular weight isoforms of FS could only be detected by the H10 Ab (Fig. 3BGo) in lanes containing hrFS315 (lane 3).

 
The FS288 antibody (17/2) was used to neutralize the presence of endogenous FS288 on PC3 cells, to determine if the production of FS288 by PC3 cells was associated with the resistance to the growth inhibitory effects of exogenously added activin A. Activin A (40 ng/ml) did not inhibit cell proliferation as measured by the uptake of 3H-thymidine; the addition of the neutralizing FS288 antibody alone, did not alter the uptake of thymidine by the cells (Fig. 4Go). However, activin A together with increasing concentrations of the FS 288 antibody 17/2, resulted in a dose-dependent decrease in cell proliferation, to approximately 60% of control values (Fig. 4Go).



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Figure 4. Induction of activin response in PC3 cells. Cell proliferation, as measured by 3H-thymidine incorporation was determined in control wells to which concentration matched IgG was added (filled bar, C). This value was denoted as 100% of control from three experiments. The proliferation in wells containing culture media alone (filled bar, M) was 101.3 ± 6.506%. Proliferation in wells containing activin A (40 ng/ml; filled bar, A) was 98.78 ± 4.937%. In the presence of increasing amounts of FS288 Ab (17/2), from 10 to 40 µg/ml, and activin A (open bars), a progressive decrease in cell proliferation was recorded which was significantly different (* = P < 0.05, n = 4 wells/experiment) compared with proliferation in wells containing FS288 Ab (17/2) alone (hatched bars).

 

    Discussion
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
Reports from this and other laboratories (14, 15, 20) have shown that activin A can induce apoptosis and inhibit cell proliferation in the human prostate tumor cell line LNCaP. This response was not observed in the PC3 cell line and does not appear to be associated with the fact that the PC3 cell growth is androgen independent because the action of activin A on LNCaP cells occurred in the absence or presence of nM concentrations of DHT (14, 15). Alternatively, the differential response to activin A may be due to different levels of endogenous activin A production, or to the production of different isoforms of follistatin by the two cell lines.

The expression of mRNA for the activin ßA subunit is known to be present in both cell lines, and immunoreactivity for the ßA subunit has been recorded in LNCaP and PC3 cells (16, 17). Using a specific ELISA, we have been able to measure activin A production in PC3 cells but not in LNCaP cells; this is the first measurement of the ligand, activin A, in human prostate tumor cell lines. The endogenous production of measurable levels of activin A may be one reason why PC3 cells do not respond to exogenously added activin A, whereas growth of LNCaP cells (which do not produce measurable levels of activin A), is inhibited by nanogram amounts of exogenously added activin A. Whether or not activin A is up-regulated in prostate cancer needs to be determined. Anderson et al. (25) did not detect inhibin ßA subunit or activin A protein in prostate tissue from normal men who had undergone vasectomy. In contrast, we have previously reported activin ßA subunit mRNA and activin proteins in nonmalignant human prostate and in cancer. The detection of activin A in PC3 cells may suggest that the expression of the ligand is up-regulated in tumor cells; however, this is not a constant observation as LNCaP cells contained no measurable activin A.

The activin subunit ßB is also expressed by the tumor cell lines (16, 17), and it is possible that the other forms of activin, i.e. activin AB and activin B, may be synthesized by the cells. This remains to be determined, but attempts to measure the other activin ligands in this laboratory have not been successful to date; it is possible that the pattern or relative levels of activin A, B, and AB synthesis is different in the two cell lines. We have shown that both activin B, as well as activin A, inhibits cell proliferation in LNCaP cells, although those studies were limited due to the amounts of activin B that were available (14). Whatever form of activin is synthesized by the cells, the synthesis of activin A by PC3 cells is significantly higher than that from LNCaP cells, but it is unlikely to be the main reason for the lack of response by PC3 cells to activin A. A similar finding by DiSimone et al. (26) reported that endogenous production of activin A or B did not correlate with differences in proliferative activity observed in human ovarian cancer cell lines. Further work is required to measure the synthesis of other activin ligands, involving the ßA subunit, to determine if such a correlation does exist.

Alternatively, the production of FS288 by PC3 cells could contribute to the resistance to activin A. We have shown that mRNA for FS315 is expressed in LNCaP and PC3 cells, but mRNA for FS288 can be detected only in the PC3 cell line (14). This study reports that FS 288 protein is present in media from PC3, and not LNCaP cell cultures and that FS288 protein can be measured by a specific ultrasensitive ELISA. The levels of FS288 that are measured, are readily detected by the assay and estimated to be between 3 and 8 ng/ml/day in wells plated with 50,000 PC3 tumor cells. During the period of culture the pattern of FS288 and activin A synthesis is altered so that activin A levels plateau but FS288 synthesis continues to increase. The reason why FS288 synthesis increases without a corresponding change in activin A is unknown and may be related to a change in the type of activin dimers produced by the PC3 cells over the course of the culture period. However, the relative proportion of FS bound to activin A is not known because the FS288 ELISA measures "total" FS (i.e. FS previously bound to activin and free FS) and the activin A ELISA measures "total" activin A. Regardless of what proportion of FS288 is bound to activin A, the addition of FS288 antibody (17/2) to the PC3 cells, permits or induces a response to activin A. The addition of 17/2 antibody alone reduced DNA synthesis, but this lowered response was not significant. In theory it might be predicted that endogenous activin A, in the presence of the 17/2 antibody, may significantly reduce DNA synthesis. However, any growth inhibition is contingent upon exposure of the cells to an appropriate concentration of endogenous activin A. We estimated that the levels of activin A produced by the PC3 cells was less than 4 ng/ml, and this concentration may not be sufficient to cause a significant fall in 3H-thymidine incorporation: note that activin A was added at 40 ng/ml in the presence of the anti-FS288 antibody 17/2, and this dose reduced PC3 cell proliferation by approximately 50%. Thus, a lower dose of 4 ng/ml of activin A, from an endogenous (or exogenous) source, may not cause a significant response, although it may be enough to have a minor effect on DNA synthesis. This lends further support to the idea that the synthesis of FS288 by PC3 cells renders them resistant to the inhibitory effects of activin A.

Both cell lines express mRNA and protein for FS315; however, measurement of this isoform of FS remains to be determined, and accurate measurement awaits the development of a specific ELISA for FS315. Nevertheless, it is the synthesis of FS288, specifically produced by PC3 and not LNCaP cells, which may be particularly important in terms of resistance to activin A. FS288 and FS315 bind activin A with similar affinities, but FS288, rather than FS315, may play a role in the inactivation and clearance of activin A (9). FS288 exhibits a high affinity for heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs), whereas FS315 has a lower affinity. In pituitary cells, cell-associated FS288 accelerates endocytic internalization of activin A and ultimately leads to degradation by lysosomal enzymes. Hashimoto and colleagues (9) concluded that FS288 associated with cell surface HSPGs causes irreversible degradation of activin A, whereas activin A bound to FS315, is not fated for endocytic breakdown and is generally considered to be the form of FS in the systemic circulation (5, 27).

It is puzzling that PC3 prostate tumor cells would permit the synthesis of activin A, which has the potential to be growth inhibitory and induce apoptosis. A similar paradox exists in tumor tissues from men with high grade prostate cancer (13), i.e. ßA and ßB subunit mRNA expression and proteins have been localized to the tumor cells, and yet it is assumed that the tumors are actively undergoing cell proliferation and may have caused metastasis. One answer to this paradox may lie in the fact that activins have a widespread tissue distribution, and their actions are not limited to the regulation of FSH. For example, activins have roles in development, wound healing, tissue repair, cardiovascular function, and immune response (28, 29). Some of these effects may be advantageous to progression of the tumor, e.g. in the promotion of angiogenesis and immune suppression. Such actions may be achieved through circulating forms of activins bound to FS315 at other sites in the body. The local, potentially deleterious effects of activin A, could be neutralized by binding to FS288 associated with cell surface HSPGs, and the ligand degraded. Such a process would prevent/block the autocrine effect of activin A and permit tumor cell growth. In biopsy material from men with high grade cancer, we have reported the localization of FS288 to the tumor cells, in conjunction with the expression of activin ßA and ßB subunit proteins. By analogy, we may speculate that the autocrine effects of activin A on the tumor cells could be blocked by cell-associated FS288.

The tumor cell lines used in this study were originally derived from prostate metastases (30, 31), and further work is required to determine if there is any difference in the expression of FS288 in primary prostate tumors or in the sites of metastasis. Specifically, it would be important to determine which tumors do not express FS288 and if these are inhibited by activin A or other activin ligands. If this were the case, then it may be possible to develop the activin ligands as therapeutic agents for androgen-dependent and independent prostate cancer in combination with systems of targeted, specific delivery of activin to the tumor cells.


    Acknowledgments
 
The authors would like to acknowledge the helpful discussion and advice from Dr. J. Morrison, Ms. A. O’Conner, and Dr. D. J. Phillips (Institute of Reproduction and Development, Clayton, Australia) and Dr. D. Peehl (Stanford University, Stanford, CA).

Received February 23, 1999.


    References
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 

  1. Robertson DM, Klein R, de Vos FL, McLachlan RI, Wettenhall REH, Hearn MTW, Burger HG, deKretser DM 1987 The isolation of polypeptides with FSH suppressing activity from bovine follicular fluid which are structurally different to inhibin. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 149:744–749[CrossRef][Medline]
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