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Submitted on January 8, 2009
Accepted on May 14, 2009
Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA, 27710; Department of Molecular & Cellular Biochemistry, Comprehensive Cancer Center, College of Medicine, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA, 43210; and Division of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, 02115
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: donald.mcdonnell{at}duke.edu.
Advanced prostate cancers preferentially metastasize to bone, suggesting that this tissue produces factors that provide a suitable microenvironment for prostate cancer cells. Recently, it has become clear that even in antiandrogen-resistant cancers, the androgen receptor (AR)-signaling axis is required for prostate cancer progression. Therefore, we hypothesized that AR may be involved in the regulation of pathways that are responsible for the homing of prostate cancer cells to select microenvironments. In support of this hypothesis, we have determined that CXCR4, the receptor for the chemokine CXCL12, is upregulated in prostate cancer cells in response to androgens. Given that the levels of CXCL12 are elevated at sites of known prostate cancer metastases such as bone, these results suggest that androgens may influence prostate cancer metastasis. Specifically, we demonstrate that androgens increase the levels of both CXCR4 mRNA and functional protein in LNCaP prostate cancer cells. Importantly, androgens enhanced the migration of LNCaP cells towards a CXCL12 gradient, an effect that could be blocked by the specific CXCR4 antagonist AMD3100. Interestingly, CXCR4 is not directly regulated by androgens but rather is positively upregulated by Krüppel-like factor 5 (KLF5), a transcription factor that we have shown to be an early, direct target of AR. Further, KLF5 is both required and sufficient for androgen-mediated CXCR4 expression and migration towards CXCL12. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that AR can utilize the CXCL12/CXCR4 axis through induction of KLF5 expression to promote prostate cancer progression and highlight the potential utility of CXCR4 antagonists as prostate cancer therapeutics.
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