Journal List > Korean J Urol > v.49(3) > 1005072

Cha, Jang, and Lee: Expression of Survivin and Bcl-2 in Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Treated with a 5-alpha-reductase Inhibitor

Abstract

Purpose

A 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor (5αRI) can induce apoptosis and decrease the prostatic volume in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). In this study we assessed the expression of survivin and bcl-2 in the epithelium of BPH patients treated with finasteride.

Materials and Methods

Group 1 consisted of 39 patients who underwent transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) without medication and Group 2 consisted of 31 patients who underwent TURP and were treated with finasteride for more than three months. The mean age of both groups of patients was 73.03±7.02 years and 74.71±5.99 years, respectively. Immunohistochemical staining for survivin, bcl-2 and ki-67 was performed in prostatic tissues. The percentage of cells that expressed survivin and bcl-2 were classified into four categories based on the staining intensity. The expression of ki-67 in nuclei using 10 random cells per specimen was obtained. The relationship between 5αRI and the expression of survivin, bcl-2 and ki-67 was analyzed.

Results

The total mean prostate volume of group 1 patients and group 2 patients was 45.51ml and 37.23ml, respectively (p<0.001) and the mean serum total prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level of group 1 patients and group 2 patients was 5.09ng/ml and 3.75ng/ml, respectively (p=0.105). Decreased expression of survivin and bcl-2 in specimens from group 2 patients was observed as compared to the level of expression in group 1 patients (p<0.001, p=0.001). Expression of ki-67 determined in samples from both groups was not significantly different (p=0.345).

Conclusions

We suggest that finasteride may induce apoptosis of prostatic epithelial cells in BPH patients by reducing the expression of survivin and bcl-2. These findings may indicate a reduction of prostatic volume.

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Fig. 1.
Immunohistochemical staining for survivin (A, B), bcl-2 (C, D) and ki-67 (E, F) in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients given finasteride treatment (B, D, F) and for non-treated patients (A, C, E). In these tissues, survivin expression was distributed predominantly in the cytoplasm of epithelial cells (black arrow) and bcl-2 was expressed predominantly in the basal epithelium (white arrow). Comparing both groups, the immunoreactivities of survivin and bcl-2 in the group treated with finasteride (B, D) were decreased more than the immunoreactivities of the other group (A, C). The number of ki-67 labelled epithelial cells (black arrowhead) was similar between samples from the two groups (E, F) (x400).
kju-49-242f1.tif
Table 1.
Baseline patients characteristics
Group 1 (n=39) Group 2 (n=31) p-value
Age (years) 73.03±7.02 74.71±5.99 0.283
Total prostate vol (ml) 45.51±8.78 37.23±3.36 <0.001
Serum total PSA (ng/ml) 5.09±4.37 3.75±2.25 0.105

PSA: prostate-specific antigen.

: Statistical significance was done by Student's t-test.

Table 2.
Expressions of survivin, bcl-2 and ki-67 in specimen from both groups
Group 1 (n=39) Group 2 (n=31) p-value
Survivin expression <0.001
   0 (%) 0 (0) 3 (9.7)
   1 (%) 8 (20.6) 19 (61.3)
   23(%) 21 (53.8) 9 (29.0)
   3 (%) 10 (25.6) 0 (0)
Bcl-2 expression 0.001
   0 (%) 3 (7.7) 11 (35.4)
   1 (%) 13 (33.3) 10 (32.3)
   2 (%) 17 (43.6) 10 (32.3)
   3 (%) 6 (15.4) 0 (0)
Ki-67 27.99±21.85 18.14±16.32 0.345

: Statistical significance was done by chi-square test,

: Statistical significance was done by Student's t-test.

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