Senescence-correlated gene expression programs of human prostate stromal cells in response to multiple proliferation-arresting stress and their potential in driving prostate neoplasia

As an age-related process, cellular senescence is cell cycle arrest and it safeguards against incidental oncogenic activation by playing antiproliferative roles. Despite the establishment that senescence is a beneficial anticancer mechanism, increasing evidence indicates its deleterious effects that might contribute to age-related pathologies. We applied a group of methods that causes typical senescence to PSC27, a primary normal human prostate stromal cell line, and compared their capacity in influencing the expression of senescence- and proliferation-related genes. Custom Agilent 44K whole human genome expression oligonucleotide microarrays were used to profile PSC27 prostate fibroblast cells treated with agents to induce senescence (oxidative stress, DNA damage, and radiation.) Total RNA was isolated and amplified prior to hybridization against a common reference pool of prostate tumor cell lines.