Figure 1: Cd24 promotes onset and progression of prostate cancer in TRAMP mice.
(a) Onset of palpable prostate tumour development in Cd24+/+, Cd24+/− and Cd24−/− TRAMP mice was observed over 35 weeks. P-value of log-rank tests are Cd24 WT versus Cd24+/−, P=0.0001; Cd24 WT versus Cd24−/−, P=0.0017; Cd24+/− versus Cd24−/−, P=0.51. (b) Representative images of prostates from 30-week-old Cd24+/+ (n=7), Cd24+/− (n=11) and Cd24−/− (n=9) TRAMP mice. (c) Prostate sizes in 30-week-old TRAMP mice in Cd24+/+, Cd24+/− and Cd24−/− TRAMP mice. The lower abdominal area was divided into 0.4-mm-thick slices and MRI images were acquired to provide continuous images of the whole prostate. The surface area of the prostate slices was traced by segmenting and summed to estimate the total volume. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests revealed an extremely significant Cd24 gene dose effect on the prostate size (P=0.00026). (d) The weights of 35-week-old Cd24+/+ (n=9), Cd24+/− (n=22) and Cd24−/− (n=10) TRAMP prostates. ANOVA tests revealed an extremely significant Cd24 gene-dose effect on the prostate weight (P=0.00011). (e) Representative histology of prostate carcinomas (PCa) that developed in Cd24+/+ Cd24+/−, and Cd24−/− TRAMP mice. The data show a difference in the degree of differentiation in tumour morphology. (f) Cd24 promotes progression (left panel) and metastasis (right panel) of prostate cancer in the TRAMP model. The prostate tissue was examined double blind and classified into the following categories: normal prostate, hyperplasia prostate (HP), intraepithelial neoplasia in the prostate (PIN), moderate (mod) to well-differentiated (well diff) PCa and poorly differentiated PCa. Cancer was scored metastatic if one or more distal metastases to either the lungs, kidneys or liver were detected histologically. Examples of tumours at each grade are shown in e, whereas that of normal prostate and hyperplasia are shown in Supplementary Fig. 1. Pearson’s χ2 test was used to determine whether the Cd24 geneotypes affected the progression to poorly differentiated PCa (left panel) or distal metastasis (right panel).
