Ben Jemaa et al. Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research 2010, 29:171 http://www.jeccr.com/content/29/1/171 R E S E A R C H Open Access Co-expression and impact of prostate specific membrane antigen and prostate specific antigen in prostatic pathologies Awatef Ben Jemaa 1, Yosra Bouraoui 1, Sataa Sallami2, Ahmed Banasr3, Nawfel Ben Rais4, Latifa Ouertani5, Yassin Nouira2, Ali Horchani2, Ridha Oueslati1* Abstract Background: The present study was undertaken to relate the co-expression of prostate-associated antigens, PSMA and PSA, with the degree of vascularization in normal and pathologic (hyperplasia and cancer) prostate tissues to elucidate their possible role in tumor progression. Methods: The study was carried out in 6 normal, 44 benign prostatic hyperplastic and 39 cancerous human prostates. Immunohistochemical analysis were performed using the monoclonal antibody CD34 to determine the angiogenic activity, and the monoclonal antibodies 3E6 and ER-PR8 to assess PSMA and PSA expression, respectively. Results: In our study we found that in normal prostate tissue, PSMA and PSA were equally expressed (3.7 ± 0.18 and 3.07 ± 0.11). A significant difference in their expression was see in hyperplastic and neoplastic prostates tissues (16.14 ± 0.17 and 30.72 ± 0.85, respectively) for PSMA and (34.39 ± 0.53 and 17.85 ± 1.21, respectively) for PSA. Study of prostate tumor profiles showed that the profile (PSA+, PSMA-) expression levels decreased between normal prostate, benign prostatic tissue and primary prostate cancer. In the other hand, the profile (PSA-, PSMA+) expression levels increased from normal to prostate tumor tissues. PSMA overexpression was associated with high intratumoral angiogenesis activity. By contrast, high PSA expression was associated with low angiogenesis activity. Conclusion: These data suggest that these markers are regulated differentially and the difference in their expression showed a correlation with malignant transformation. With regard to the duality PSMA-PSA, this implies the significance of their investigation together in normal and pathologic prostate tissues. Introduction The prostate gland is the site of two most pathological processes among elderly men, benign prostatic hyperpla- sia (BPH) and prostate cancer (PC) [1]. According to the zonal origin, prostate cancer arising mainly in the periph- eral zone (PZ), whereas the transition zone (TZ) is the exclusive location for the origin of BPH and PC develop- ing in this latter zone are frequently found incidentally. There are different biological features between PZ and TZ of prostate gland [2]. Aberrant prostate growth arises as a consequence of changes in the balance between cell * Correspondence: oridha2003@yahoo.fr 1Unit of Immunology and Microbiology Environmental and Carcinogenesis (IMEC), Faculty of Sciences of Bizerte, 7021, Zarzouna, University of 7-November at Carthage, Tunisia Full list of author information is available at the end of the article proliferation and cell death [3]. This deregulation may result in production of prostate specific markers such as the secreted protease prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and the cell surface prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) [4]. A transmembrane glycoprotein expressed in the human prostate parenchyma, from where it was first cloned and named prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) [5] has gained increased attention in diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of PC [6]. PSMA is a metallo- peptidase belonging to the peptidase family M28 [7] and has apparent molecular masses of 84-100 kDa [8] with a unique three-part structure: a short cytoplasmic amino terminus that interacts with an actin filament, a single membrane-spanning domain and a large extracellular domain [9]. Several alternative isoforms have been © 2010 Ben Jemaa et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.