Regulation of Epithelial Branching Morphogenesis and Cancer Cell Growth of the Prostate by Wnt Signaling
Figure 3
Activation of Wnt signaling enhances prostate epithelial cell proliferation.
(A-F) Shown are anti-BrdU antibody (B,D,F) and DAPI (A,C,E) double labeling of the P3 rat ventral prostate organ cultures maintained for 3 days in the absence (A,B) or presence of 50 nM of Wnt3a (C,D) or 400 nM of DKK1(E,F). (G). Quantification of BrdU-positive cells in a given visual field of 434 µm×322 µm. (H) Quantification of Ki67-positive cells in the P2 prostate cultures maintained for 7 days, which was normalized to the control cultures. Cell counts (for G and H) were performed from randomly selected visual fields of 5 organ cultures per group and data were expressed as mean+SEM (t-test). Note that while Wnt3a significantly enhanced progenitor cell proliferation, DKK1 inhibited progenitor cell proliferation. (I). Expression level change of cyclin B2 in P2 rat prostate organ cultures.. Data were collected from 4 organ cultures maintained for 2 days per group and are expressed as mean+SEM (t-test). Note that expression of cyclin B2 was upregulated by wnt3a, but down-regulated by DKK1. Bar, 100 µm for A-F.