How prostate-specific membrane antigen level may be correlated with stemness in prostate cancer stem cell-like cell populations?

Background: Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is a widely used targeted molecule in prostate patients. The present research, attempts to support the hypothesis that PSMA expression in prostate cancer stem cell-like (CSC) cell populations may be correlated with nanog and other transcription factors in different stages of prostate carcinomas. Materials and Methods: To provide more accurate evidence of the above, a population of prostate CSCs was isolated and analyzed using different protocols. The first method was based in the ability of CSCs to form spherical colonies in semi-suspension of a culture. A qPCRbased protocol and a flow cytometric analysis protocol were chosen to test the presence of stemness markers and PSMA in the selected populations. Results: The formation of micro-sphere in semi-suspension has been pointed out. In the other panels of the test, the linear correlation between PSMA and nanog in gene and protein level was shown. However, the statistical analysis including the coefficient of variationand standard deviation's values) has proved that there were differences in PSMA expression between cancer cells and CSCs. Conclusion: The previous analysis has pointed out that PSMA expression may be correlated with nanog's expression as well as with other confounders in a population of prostate CSCs.