Endoglin (CD105) is expressed on immature blood vessels and is a marker for survival in prostate cancer

Abstract

Endoglin marks principally small, probably newly formed tumor vessels in zthe prostate, and is a promising prognostic marker for prostate cancer patients.

Whole-mount prostate sections reveal differential endoglin expression in stromal, epithelial, and endothelial cells with the development of prostate cancer

“…22,23,31 In TUR specimens, there was approximately 4-fold lower number of endoglin-vs vWF-stained tumor vessels. 13 Whether this discrepancy is due to differences in methods, cases, and use of whole mount vs TUR sections is unknown, but in both series, endoglinstained tumor microvessels (and vWF in the present series) correlated with Gleason score. Conflicting data were reported with other markers.…”

“…Thus, endoglin appears to be a highly sensitive angiogenic marker in several malignancies. 13,[22][23][24]31 Several factors may be invoked to explain the endoglin staining pattern seen in the present study and not reported in TUR specimens. While this includes tissue processing, methodology, and analysis of different areas (normal/benign, PIN and cancer), the types of surgical specimens (whole-mount vs TUR) is likely in cause.…”

“…13 Other novel observations are that premalignant (PIN) and malignant (cancer) lesions of the prostate are accompanied by an upregulation of endoglin in the stromal and epithelial compartments as well as in endothelial cells of blood vessels, also preferentially stained using endoglin vs vWF antibodies. Moreover, tumor-associated endoglin-stained blood vessels correlated with Gleason score and biological recurrence.…”

“…This is consistent with the study in TURP samples showing a relationship with TGF-b tumor cell immunoreactivity. 13 Thus changes in endoglin expression in prostatic microvessels likely reflect differences in the composition of TGF-b receptor complexes at the endothelial cell surface during their formation and hence, a window for the contribution of TGF-b in the angiogenic process.…”

“…9,10 The endoglin expression profile in organs and tissues indicates that this protein, often referred to as a proliferation-associated antigen of angiogenesis, is primarily a marker of endothelial cells expressed at particularly elevated levels in angiogenic areas such as in the placenta, tissue regeneration after injury, and tumor growth, including prostate cancer. 5,[11][12][13] Besides blood vessels, endoglin expression was reported in diverse stromal and inflammatory cells, with fluctuating levels according to cell activation status or growth patterns. Examples are trophoblasts, 5 stromal uterine cells, 6 mesenchymal stem cells and hemopoietic precursor cells of the bone marrow, 14 and myeloid elements in rheumatoid synovial tissues.…”