Examining the Role and Regulation of Cell-Cell Adhesion in Aggressive Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, yet despite the prevalence of this disease, there is a distinct lack of prognostic biomarkers for estimating the likelihood of prostate cancer aggressiveness. The loss of cell-cell adhesion is frequently associated with the progression of prostate cancer to a metastatic state. While both adherens junctions and desmosomes are involved in establishing and maintaining this adhesion, previous studies of cell-cell adhesion in prostate cancer have focused solely on the role of adherens junctions, leaving the role of desmosomal adhesion unexplored. The goals of this thesis were to perform a functional analysis of the role and regulation of adherens junctions and desmosomes in aggressive prostate cancer, and to examine the efficacy of classical and desmosomal cadherins as prognostic biomarkers of aggressive prostate cancer. I began this study by characterizing the expression profile of desmosomal cadherins in normal human prostate and metastatic prostate cancer cell lines. This study revealed that DSG2, DSC2, and DSG4 were consistently expresse