doi:10.1369/jhc.5A6733.2006
Volume 54 (9): 981-990, 2006 Copyright ©The Histochemical Society, Inc. Immunohistochemical Study of Cell Proliferation, Bcl-2, p53, and Caspase-3 Expression on Preneoplastic Changes Induced by Cadmium and Zinc Chloride in the Ventral Rat Prostate
Cell Biology and Histology Laboratory (RA,JMP,RR) and Genetics Laboratory (NH-G,TP), San PabloCEU University, Madrid, Spain; Service of Pathology, Hospital N. Sra. de Sonsoles, Ávila, Spain (RM); and Department of Morphology, School of Medicine, Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain (LS) Correspondence to: L. Santamaría, Department of Morphology, School of Medici ne, Autonomous University, C/Arzobispo Morcillo, 2, E-28029 Madrid, Spain. E-mail: luis.santamaria{at}uam.es
This work was directed to evaluate immunoexpression of markers for apoptosis, resistance to apoptosis, and cell proliferation, as well as estimates of nuclear size in ventral prostate of rats treated with cadmium chloride and cadmium + zinc chloride because a possible protective effect of zinc has been postulated. The following variables were studied: volume fraction (VF) of Bcl-2 immunostaining, percentage of cells immunoreactive to proliferating cell nuclear antigen (LIPCNA) and p53 (LIp53), numerical density of caspase-3 immunoreactive cells (NV caspase-3), and estimates of volume-weighted mean nuclear volume ( V). The LIPCNA and VF of Bcl-2 were significantly increased in the treated animals. The dysplasias (independent of their origin) showed a significant increase of the LIp53, NV caspase-3, and V in comparison with normal acini from treated and control animals. It can be concluded that cell proliferation is enhanced in long-term cadmium-exposed rats, and exposure to zinc combined with cadmium had no effect on any of the variables studied when comparing with normal acini. The increase of nuclear V could indicate a more aggressive behavior for pretumoral lesions. (J Histochem Cytochem 54:981990, 2006)
Key Words: rat prostate cadmium zinc dysplasia immunohistochemistry
PROSTATIC INTRAEPITHELIAL NEOPLASIA (PIN) is the histologic change most commonly associated with prostate cancer and has been proposed as a precursor of invasive prostate cancer (Bostwick 1992
Molecular and immunohistochemical markers have been found to be useful in characterizing the progression of human PIN. These markers include changes in several genes that encode the expression of cell proliferation regulators (e.g., bcl-2, p53, p16, p22, and Cerb-B2) (Bostwick 1996
Bcl-2 is a small intracellular non-glycosylated protein that is able to inhibit the apoptotic pathway when overexpressed in cells (Knillova and Kolar 2003
Some epidemiological and animal studies provide substantial evidence implicating cadmium, a known human carcinogen, as a prostate carcinogen (Waalkes 2000
The main experimental model for human prostate cancer is the rat (Pollard and Wolter 2000 The aim of this study was to investigate (a) the presence and morphology of preneoplastic lesions caused by exposure to cadmium and the influence of zinc on these lesions in rat prostate and (b) the immunohistochemical protein expression of apoptosis promoter and suppressor genes and cell proliferation.
Animals Sixty male Sprague Dawley rats, 30 days old at the beginning of the study, were used for immunohistochemical and stereological studies. The animals were fed with Panlab Lab Chow (Barcelona, Spain) and water ad libitum. Animal protocols are in compliance with the guidelines for the care and use of research animals adopted for the Society of Reproduction. The animals were classified into three groups according to treatment (20 rats/group). Cadmium (Panreac; Madrid, Spain) was added to the drinking water of the first group at a concentration of 60 ppm during the time course of the experiment (24 months). The second group received zinc chloride (Panreac) at a concentration of 50 ppm plus cadmium (60 ppm) in the drinking water. The third group was used as control and received drinking water free of these metals. Five rats per treatment group were killed each 6 months until the end of the experiment (24 months). All animals were euthanized by exsanguination after CO2 narcosis. Although body weight at the end of the experiment was slightly higher in controls than in treated rats, no significant differences in the size of the animals were detected. The prostate complex was dissected from the abdominal cavity of each animal. Dorsolateral prostate lobes were routinely examined in all groups studied, and no dysplastic changes were detected. Only the ventral lobe was employed in the study. Afterwards, the ventral prostate was exhaustively sectioned into 2-mm-width slices. The section plane was perpendicular to the sagittal axis of the gland. All specimens were fixed by immersion in 4% paraformaldehyde in PBS, pH 7.4, for 24 hr and afterwards embedded in paraffin.
Sampling Procedure
Evaluation of immunostainings was performed on five sections selected by random systematic sampling (Gundersen et al. 1988
Histologic Definition of the Lesions
Immunohistochemical Methods After immunoreactions, slides were counterstained with either acetic carmine, Harris hematoxylin, or methyl green, dehydrated in ethanol, and mounted in a synthetic resin (Depex; Serva, Heidelberg, Germany). Specificity of the immunohistochemical procedures was checked by incubation of sections with non-immune serum instead of the primary antibody.
Quantitative Evaluation of Cell Proliferation and p53
Quantitative Evaluation of Bcl-2 Immunostaining
Evaluation of Numerical Cell Density
Volume-Weighted Mean Nuclear Volume (
Statistical Analysis To evaluate differences between age groups independent of the treatment (6 months, >6 months), Student's t-test was used; p<0.05 was considered significant.
Histological Findings Fifteen dysplastic focal lesions were detected at the end of the experiment in the acinar epithelium of ventral prostate from cases treated with cadmium alone (six rats) and eight dysplastic focal lesions were detected in animals treated with cadmium + zinc (five rats). The acini from the controls showed a columnar monostratified epithelium (Figures 1A and 1B), whereas the dysplastic acini showed an irregularly enlarged epithelial lining (Figures 1C and 1D). The first dysplastic changes appeared after 12 months of treatment and are early, isolated, and small lesions (Figure 1C), whereas those appearing at 24 months are larger. Distribution of the dysplastic acini of long evolution was multicentric for the group of cadmium-exposed rats and single for the cadmium + zinc-treated animals. The non-dysplastic acini from treated rats had a similar morphology to that of the acini of control rats. In comparison with control acini, dysplastic glands showed a remarkable enlargement with frequent cribriform pattern (Figures 1C and 1D). Occasional polypoid formations were seen. The nuclei presented important size heterogeneity, and nucleoli were usually prominent (Figure 1D). Occasional mitosis was observed (Figure 1D). No tumoral infiltration in the surrounding stroma was demonstrated.
PCNA and p53 Immunostaining PCNA immunostaining has been detected in the nuclei from all specimens studied (Figures 2A and 2B). Dysplastic acini showed remarkable immunoreactivity to PCNA in comparison with controls (Figure 2C).
Immunoreactivity to p53 was detected in both cytoplasm and nucleus of epithelial cells from prostate acini throughout all groups (Figures 2D and 2E). Nuclear p53 immunostaining was also remarkable in the acini with dysplastic changes (Figure 2F).
Bcl-2 and Caspase-3 Immunostaining Immunostaining to caspase-3 was not detected in the prostate epithelium of controls (Figure 2J). Caspase-3 immunoreactivity was observed in the cytoplasm from isolated epithelial cells and was frequent in those cells detached to the lumen of the acinus. This immunoreactivity was occasionally shown in the non-dysplastic epithelium from treated rats (Figure 2K) and remarkably increased in the dyplastic lesions (Figure 2L).
Quantitative Results
ANOVA results regarding the influence of the type of dysplasias according to their origin (cadmium- or cadmium + zinc-exposed rats) are also shown in Table 1. LIPCNA showed a significant increase in the dysplasias in comparison with control acini. The two treatment groups showed no significant differences (Figure 4A ). For LIp53, no significant differences between types of dysplasias could be detected, but the dysplasias caused by cadmium exposure showed a significant increase of LIp53 in comparison with the controls (Figure 4B). However, when the numerical density for caspase-3+ cells was considered, this parameter showed a significant increase in the dysplasias. Dysplastic regions from both treatment groups displayed no significant differences. No significant differences were also observed between the sources of dysplasias (Figure 4C). Nuclear V showed a significant increase in both cadmium and cadmium + zinc dysplasias when compared with controls. No significant differences were ascertained between the sources of dysplasias (Figure 4D).
When the two types of dysplastic lesions were considered as a whole, LIPCNA was significantly increased in both treated non-dysplastic and dysplastic acini when compared with controls. Nevertheless, no significant differences were observed between treated non-dysplastic and dysplastic glands (Figure 5A ).
There was a significant increase in the VF Bcl-2 in dysplastic acini when compared with controls, but no differences were observed between treated non-dysplastic and dysplastic glands (Figure 5B). LIp53 and the numerical density for caspase-3+ cells were significantly increased in dysplastic acini in comparison with controls and treated non-dysplastic acini (Figures 5C and 5D).
There was a significant increase in nuclear
The significance of Student's t-test carried out to ascertain influence of the time of exposure to the treatment is shown in Table 2 . Significant differences were detected only for LIPCNA. A significant increase was also observed for the LIPCNA of animals treated for >6 months (Figure 7 ).
No significant histologic lesions were observed during the first 6 months of treatment with cadmium chloride. These results are in accordance with the findings of Visser and Dekler (1979), who reported no significant changes in the rat prostate epithelium after 6 and 10 months of cadmium treatment. In the specimens treated for 12 and 18 months with cadmium or cadmium + zinc, structural alterations observed were considered as preneoplastic lesions by several authors (Parkinson 1995
The significant increase of cell proliferation observed in the groups treated >6 months might be due to the growth of dysplasias from 12 months of exposure (Waalkes et al. 1992
According to some authors (King et al. 1999
For the first time, caspase-3 immunoexpression has been detected in the ventral prostate from rats, involving an increase (independent of the zinc intake) of caspase-3 immunoreactive cell density in dysplastic acini. This finding does not agree with that observed in man, where caspase-3 expression is decreased in prostate cancer (O'Neill et al. 2001
Cell proliferation was clearly increased in dysplastic acini, independently of the presence of zinc. It seems that, when the dysplastic changes are present in the cadmium-exposed acini, the proliferation rate is equal to that observed in cadmium + zinc-exposed glands, as indicated in a previous study (Arriazu et al. 2005a
When exposure to metals is prolonged, some focal areas of the epithelium undergo transformation, resulting in upregulation of Bcl-2 expression, which produces an increase in focal resistance to programmed cell death. This increase, together with the proliferation, may induce the progression of these areas toward dysplasia, as has been postulated for human PIN (Martin et al. 2001
Differences in the expression and localization of PCNA and Bcl-2 between rat and human prostates are remarkably pronounced. In normal human prostate, the proliferation compartment (the basal layer, PCNA, and Bcl-2 positive) is better defined than in rat prostate where the basal compartment is represented by isolated cells and often absent in some portions of the acini. Moreover, proliferative activity in the rat is not confined to the basal cells. It has been reported that the main proliferating cells in rat prostate are the columnar (luminal) cells (Sensibar 1995
There is an inverse relationship between volume fraction of Bcl-2 and the numerical density of caspase-3 immunoreactive cells in both control and exposed rats. This supports the results of Munshi et al. (2001)
Several neoplastic conditions in man (Martin et al. 1999
We conclude that (a) a significant increase of cell proliferation occurs in animals treated with cadmium or cadmium + zinc for >6 months, (b) the exposure to zinc combined with cadmium had no effect over any of the variables studied when comparing with normal acini, (c) the increase of apoptosis in the dysplastic lesions was evident by the increment (independent of the zinc intake) of caspase-3 immunoreactive cell density, and (d) the increase of nuclear
This work was supported in part by grants 9/01 and 9/03 of the Universidad San PabloCEU.
Received for publication May 17, 2005; accepted March 11, 2006
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