Early growth inhibition is followed by increased metastatic disease with vitamin D (calcitriol) treatment in the TRAMP model of prostate cancer

PLoS One. 2014 Feb 26;9(2):e89555. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0089555. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

The active metabolite of vitamin D3, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (calcitriol) has antiproliferative effects in non-aggressive prostate cancer, however, its effects in more aggressive model systems are still unclear. In these studies, effects of calcitriol and a less-calcemic vitamin D analog, QW-1624F2-2 (QW), were tested in vivo, using the aggressive autochthonous transgenic adenocarcinoma of mouse prostate (TRAMP) model. To study prevention of androgen-stimulated prostate cancer, vehicle, calcitriol (20 µg/kg), or QW (50 µg/kg) were administered to 4 week-old TRAMP mice intraperitoneal (i.p.) 3×/week on a MWF schedule for 14 weeks. Calcitriol and QW slowed progression of prostate cancer as indicated by reduced urogenital tract (p = 0.0022, calcitriol; p = 0.0009, QW) and prostate weights (p = 0.0178, calcitriol; p = 0.0086, QW). However, only calcitriol increased expression of the pro-differentiation marker, cadherin 1 (p = 0.0086), and reduced tumor proliferation (p = 0.0467). By contrast, neither vitamin D analog had any effect on castration resistant prostate cancer in mice treated pre- or post-castration. Interestingly, although vitamin D showed inhibitory activity against primary tumors in hormone-intact mice, distant organ metastases seemed to be enhanced following treatment (p = 0.0823). Therefore, TRAMP mice were treated long-term with calcitriol to further examine effects on metastasis. Calcitriol significantly increased the number of distant organ metastases when mice were treated from 4 weeks-of-age until development of palpable tumors (20-25 weeks-of-age)(p = 0.0003). Overall, data suggest that early intervention with vitamin D in TRAMP slowed androgen-stimulated tumor progression, but prolonged treatment resulted in development of a resistant and more aggressive disease associated with increased distant organ metastasis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adenocarcinoma / drug therapy
  • Adenocarcinoma / epidemiology
  • Adenocarcinoma / secondary*
  • Animals
  • Blotting, Western
  • Cell Differentiation / drug effects
  • Cell Proliferation / drug effects
  • Disease Models, Animal*
  • Humans
  • Immunoenzyme Techniques
  • Incidence
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Mice, Transgenic
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / drug therapy
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / epidemiology
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Prostatic Neoplasms, Castration-Resistant / drug therapy
  • Prostatic Neoplasms, Castration-Resistant / epidemiology
  • Prostatic Neoplasms, Castration-Resistant / secondary*
  • Tumor Cells, Cultured
  • Vitamin D / analogs & derivatives*
  • Vitamin D / pharmacology

Substances

  • dihydroxy-vitamin D3
  • Vitamin D