Expression and significance of PRL-3 in prostatic carcinoma tissues

Objective To study the expression of protein tyrosine phosphatase PRL-3 and to investigate its clinical,pathological and biological behavior implications in prostatic carcinoma. Methods The expression of PRL-3 was examined in 60 paraffin-embedded tissue sections including 48 cases of prostatic carcinoma and 12 cases of benign prostate hyperplasia by immunohistochemical staining. The relationship between PRL-3 expression and clinicopathological features was analyzed by Chi-square test. Results The immunoreactive staining was located in the cytoplasm of prostatic carcinoma. The positive rate of PRL-3 in prostatic carcinoma was 79.2%,which was remarkably higher than that in benign prostate hyperplasia (25.0%,P 0.05). Furthermore,the positive expression of PRL-3 in prostatic carcinoma samples increased significantly with the increasing of the Gleason score. However,the positive expression of PRL-3 was not different between ages,family medical history,stages or the concentration of prostate-specific antigen in blood serum. Conclusion PRL-3 gene plays an essential role in prostate carcinogenesis and can serve as a marker for the prognosis of prostate cancer.