Differential expression of nuclear lamins in normal and cancerous prostate tissues.

The process of carcinogenesis is characterized by definite changes in the protein composition of the nuclear matrix. We have recently found that lamins form, in addition to the nuclear lamina, an intranuclear web of thin fibrils. This finding prompted us to address the question of whether changes in the expression of lamins occur in the course of tumor development. In prostate cancer, lamin B undergoes a significant increase; interestingly, its nuclear content strongly correlates with tumor differentiation. Moreover, all the lamins show reproducible alterations in the distribution of the isoelectric variants, suggesting that dephosphorylation events could trigger changes in the pattern of gene expression by inducing structural rearrangements of the nuclear scaffold.