Use of the stromal cell-derived factor-1/CXCR4 pathway in prostate cancer metastasis to bone.

Neoplasms have a striking tendency to metastasize or "home" to bone. Hematopoietic cells also home to bone during embryonic development, where evidence points to the chemokine stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1 or CXCL12; expressed by osteoblasts and endothelial cells) and its receptor (CXCR4) as key elements in these processes. We hypothesized that metastatic prostate carcinomas also use the SDF-1/CXCR4 pathway to localize to the bone. To test this, levels of CXCR4 expression were determined for several human prostate cancer cell lines by reverse transcription-PCR and Western blotting. Positive results were obtained for cell lines derived from malignancies that had spread to bone and marrow. Prostate cancer…