Expression of PARP-1 and its active polymer PAR in prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia in Chinese patients.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Aberrant expression of PARP-1 has been reported in various human malignancies and was involved in the progression and metastasis of cancers. However, little is known about PARP-1 expression in prostate cancer (PCa). This study aimed to investigate the expression of PARP-1 and its active polymer poly(ADP-ribose) (PAR) in PCa and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) tissues from Chinese patients.
METHODS: The expression of PARP-1 and PAR in PCa and benign prostate hyperplasia tissues was assessed by immunohistochemistry in 78 PCa patients and 49 BPH patients. The relationship between the expression of PARP-1 or PAR and clinicopathological parameters in PCa patients was also analyzed.
RESULTS: Both the positive and strong positive expression rates of PARP-1 in PCa tissues were significantly higher than those in BPH tissues. Although spearman correlations analysis showed the over-expression of PARP-1 and PAR in PCa tissues was not correlated with age, serum PSA level and Gleason scores (GS), an increasing trend was observed between over-expression of PARP-1 or PAR and the PSA levels (TPSA >20 vs TPSA ≤20) or GS grade (GS ≥8 vs GS ≤6).
CONCLUSION: PARP-1 and PAR expression is markedly elevated in PCa than that in BPH tissues, which may implicate that PARP-1 and PAR are involved in the development of PCa, and the possible expansion in the use of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors for targeting therapy of PCa in select patients alone or combined with chemotherapy or radiation.