Endocrine Abstracts

Prokineticins (Prok1 and Prok2) are chemokine-like peptides, which regulate through two G-protein-coupled receptors, ProkR1 and ProkR2, different physiological and pathological functions. Prok1 plays a significant role in tumour development and progression in several tissues. There are few data on the involvement of Prok1 and ProkR1 in testicular cancer. Aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of Prok1 and ProkR1 in a series of testicular germ cell tumours (GCT).<...

PATZ1 is a recently discovered zinc finger protein that, due to the presence of the POZ domain, acts as a transcriptional repressor affecting the basal activity of different promoters, and associates with a variety of transcription factors (i.e. RNF4, HMGA1, gscl, SPBP). We have previously described, by using mice lacking the PATZ1 gene, its crucial role in spermatogenesis. Consistently, PATZ1-KO mice are unfertile and testes from these mice showed only few spermatocyte...

Prokineticin 1 (Prok1), the product of EGVEGF/PROK 1 gene, acts through two G-coupled receptors (PKR1 and PKR2) and is involved in a wide spectrum of actions, including tumorigenesis. Increased Prok1 expression has been found in prostate hyperplasia and cancer, suggesting a role in prostate cancer and BPH. Aim of this study was to elucidate the role of Prok1 on prostate cell function and growth. We evaluated the effects of Prok1 on epithelial prostate cell (PC) migration and p...

Raloxifene (RAL) is a selective estrogen receptor (ER) modulator (SERM) proposed for chemoprevention of breast cancer and osteoporosis. SERMs exert agonist–antagonist effects depending on tissue or ERs expressed. RAL induces apoptosis in both androgen-dependent and independent cell lines, suggesting a selective activation of ERβ and prevalent antagonist effect on ERα in prostate cells (PC). In this study we evaluated effects of estradiol (E2) and RAL on epitheli...