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Expression and clinicopathological significance of glucocorticoid receptor, SGK1, and NDRG1 in hormone-naïve prostate carcinoma

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Abstract

Glucocorticoid receptor (GR) has been implicated in prostate carcinoma growth and progression. Glucocorticoid receptor beta (GRβ) acts as an inhibitor of GR; however, its function is not well understood. Serum- and glucocorticoid-regulated kinase 1 (SGK1) is a GR-responsive gene that phosphorylates N-myc downstream-regulated gene 1 (NDRG1) and is involved in cancer growth and invasion. However, the expression of GR, GRβ, SGK1, and NDRG1 in prostate cancer and their relationship with clinicopathological and functional significance remain unknown. The association between the status of GR, GRβ, SGK1, and NDRG1 immunoreactivity and clinicopathological variables was analyzed in patients with prostate carcinoma to explore their clinical significance. In prostate carcinoma cases, the relative abundance of GR and NDRG1 immunoreactivity was inversely and significantly associated with the primary tumor stage (pT), while GR immunoreactivity was inversely and significantly associated with the Ki-67 score. The relative expression status of NDRG1 was significantly associated with that of GR. However, no significant correlation was observed between any of the clinicopathological parameters and GRβ and SGK1 expression. Our findings indicate that GR and NDRG1 expression status is correlated with clinicopathological features in patients with prostate cancer.

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Acknowledgements

This study was conducted in cooperation with the common equipment room of Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University Faculty of Medicine. We thank the members of the Department of Pathology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine for their support. We thank Editage (www.editage.com) for English language editing.

Funding

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP18K06995.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University, 1-15-1 Fukumuro, Miyagino-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, 983–8536, Japan

    Shuko Hata, Hiroki Shimada, Mayu Koshiishi, Kazue Ise & Yasuhiro Nakamura

  2. Department of Pathology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, 980-8575, Japan

    Shuko Hata, Kazue Ise, Hironobu Sasano & Yasuhiro Nakamura

  3. Division of Pathology, Iwate Prefectural Central Hospital, 1-4-1 Ueda Iwate, Morioka, 020-0066, Japan

    Naomi Sato

  4. Division of Health Administration and Policy, Faculty of Medicine, Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University, 1-15-1 Fukumuro, Miyagino-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, 983–8536, Japan

    Tomoaki Ogata

  5. Department of Urology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, 980-8574, Japan

    Shinichi Yamashita & Akihiro Ito

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  1. Shuko Hata
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Correspondence to Yasuhiro Nakamura.

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Hata, S., Shimada, H., Sato, N. et al. Expression and clinicopathological significance of glucocorticoid receptor, SGK1, and NDRG1 in hormone-naïve prostate carcinoma. Med Mol Morphol 55, 283–291 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00795-022-00332-x

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