Correlation between the expression of integrins in prostate cancer and clinical outcome in 1284 patients

The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of a panel of integrins in prostate cancer in order to explore their potential for tumor biology. Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue samples of 1284 prostate cancer patients were retrieved from the archive of the Department of Pathology. Immunostaining was done with rabbit monoclonal antibodies directed against alpha v beta 3, alpha v beta 5, alpha v beta 6, alpha v beta 8, beta 3, and alpha v-pan. Staining results were correlated with clinicopathologic patient characteristics and patient survival. lmmunostaining of tumor cells performed on whole tissue sections of 52 patients was sparse for alpha v beta 3, alpha v beta 6, and alpha v beta 8, and more prevalent for alpha v beta 5 and alpha v-pan. alpha v beta 5, alpha v beta 8, and alpha v-pan were selected for further analyses in tissue microarrays representing the entire study cohort. alpha v beta 8 staining was generally observed in peripheral nerves. alpha v beta 5 and alpha v-pan provided strong evidence for the differential expression of these integrins in prostate cancer. The expression was variable with regard to the histoanatomical/cytoanatomical localization, cell type, intensity of immunolabeling, and Gleason pattern. alpha v beta 5 and alpha v-pan are differentially expressed in prostate cancer, and the differentiation of prostate cancer seems to influence integrin expression and subcellular distribution. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.