Differential gene expression in canine prostate cancer vs benign prostate hyperplasia tissue. [NanoString]

Despite its low incidence, the aggressive nature and high metastatic potential of canine prostate cancer (PC) make it a serious problem in veterinary medicine. However, knowledge of the molecular mechanisms and regulatory networks underlying the development and progression of canine PC is still limited. We used RNAseq to identify diffentially expressed genes between PC (n=2) and benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH, n=3) samples. Based on these results, we chose 26 genes for validation on a larger patient cohorts. We used Nanosting nCounter technology for the comparative analysis of gene expression profiles in PC (n=14) and BPH (n=7) tissue samples. Finally the results for voltage-dependent calcium channel α2δ1 subunit were validated using Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. 14 samples of RNA from canine prostate cancer tissue were included as a PC group and 7 samples of RNA from benign prostate hyperplasia tissue were included as a BPH group.