Intracellular transport of prosaposin and its role in pathological alteration of prostate.

Prostate cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed neoplasm in men. Although epidemiology studies have indicated a possible link between dietary factors and cancer development, the causes remain unclear. It has been demonstrated that prostate growth is impaired by the inactivation of the prosaposin gene in prosaposin knockout mice. However, these animals die after 38 - 40 days due to the neurological defects. In order to rescue prosaposin-deficient mice, the prosaposin cDNA has been proposed into the nervous system of the animals. Six lines of transgenic mice have been generated. These animals carry the prosaposin under the control of a neuron-specific promoter, the human neurofilament light chain (hNF-L) gene. This could permit to rescue the prosaposin-deficient mice by crossing them with prosaposin-hNF-L animals and could lead to a generation of a mouse model for elucidation of the role of prosaposin in prevention, or in triggering cancer development.Available from STL Prague, CZ / NTK - National Technical LibrarySIGLECZCzech Republi