Centrosome-centriole abnormalities are markers for abnormal cell divisions and cancer in the transgenic adenocarcinoma mouse prostate (TRAMP) model.

We utilized the transgenic adenocarcinoma mouse prostate (TRAMP) model to study the formation of abnormal mitosis in malignant tumors of the prostate. The results presented here are focused on centrosome and centriole abnormalities and the implications for abnormal cell divisions, genomic instability, and apoptosis. Centrosomes are microtubule organizing organelles which assemble bipolar spindles in normal cells but can organize mono-, tri-, and multipolar mitoses in tumor cells, as shown here with histology and electron microscopy in TRAMP neoplastic tissue. These abnormalities will cause unequal distribution of chromosomes and can initiate imbalanced cell cycles in which checkpoints for cell cycle control are lost. Neoplastic tissue of the TRAMP model is also characterized by numerous apoptotic cells. This may be the result of multipolar mitoses related to aberrant centrosome formations. Our results also reveal that centrosomes at the poles in mitotic cancer cells contain more than the regular perpendicular pair of centrioles which indicates abnormal distribution of centrioles during separation to the mitotic poles. Abnormalities in the centriole-centrosome complex are also seen during interphase where the complex is either closely associated with the nucleus or loosely dispersed in the cytoplasm. An increase in centriole numbers is observed during interphase, which may be the result of increased centriole duplication. Alternatively, these centrioles may be derived from basal bodies that have accumulated in the cell's cytoplasm, after the loss of cell borders. The supernumerary centrioles may participate in the formation of abnormal mitoses during cell division. These results demonstrate multiple abnormalities in the centrosome-centriole complex during prostate cancer that result in abnormal mitoses and may lead to increases in genomic instability and/or apoptosis.