Prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia development in these mice is restricted to the anterior mouse prostate lobes and is not found in the ventral prostate lobe.
Mouse prostate lobes and tissue recombinants were dissected and fixed in 10% phosphate-buffered formalin overnight, transferred to 50% ethanol, then embedded in paraffin.
Mean control mouse prostate weights by lobe and age in our studies are presented in Table 1.
In the present study using a different anti-Nkx3.1 antibody raised against mouse Nkx3.1[61], while very intense nuclear staining for Nkx3.1 was seen in virtually all normal luminal cells in the mouse prostate (in all lobes), its expression was dramatically decreased in PIN in all cases in Lo-MYC and Hi-MYC mice examined (Figures 3).
We examined β-gal expression in greater detail in the prostates of line 2. The mouse prostate has three lobes: anterior, dorsolateral and posterior.
In contrast to human prostate, which has a complete prostate tissue unit with a continuous basal and luminal layer, the mouse prostate has four major lobe pairs and is further divided into numerous ducts.
Unlike the human prostate, mouse prostate is divided into four distinct lobes (ventral, dorsal, lateral and anterior).
HOXA13 and HOXD13 have roles in the patterning and outgrowth of lobes of the mouse prostate gland (Kondo et al, 1997; Podlasek et al, 1997, 1999; Warot et al, 1997) and HOXB13 is required for the normal differential and secretory function of mouse prostate (Economides and Capecchi, 2003).
As expected, focal expression of HA-TGF-β1(a) was particularly evident in the ventral prostate lobe in transgenic mice owing to the efficacy of ARR2PB induced expression in this region of murine prostate gland.
A recent study showed that P. acnes can lead to a chronic inflammation of the mouse prostate; introduction of P. acnes into the mouse prostate via transurethral catheterization and inoculation led to chronic inflammation of the dorsal lobe of the prostate that persisted for at least 8 weeks after inoculation [ 27].
