Molecular pathogenesis of human prostate basal cell hyperplasia reveals a keratinocyte metaplasia

The incidence of basal cell hyperplasia (BCH) has been reported at 8-10%, but a molecular and cellular characterization has not been performed on this phenotype. Using freshly digested tissue from surgical specimens, we performed transcriptomic analysis of flow cytometry-purified basal epithelia from patients with and without a majority BCH phenotype. Gene set enrichment analysis revealed an increased expression of members of the epidermal differentiation complex, resembling the progression of other metaplastic diseases. In order to generate a clean molecular profile of BCH, free of contaminating signal from leukocytes, stroma and luminal epithelia, we performed RNA sequencing on bulk-isolated basal epithelia from 3 patients with basal hyperplasia and 4 patients without BCH