[Prostate carcinoma cell lines and apoptosis: a review]

Prostate cancer is a major pathology in industrialized countries. Tumor growth usually results from increased cell proliferation, conjugated with an inhibition of programmed cell death (apoptosis). In this paper, after a short description of the apoptotic mechanisms and their methods of investigation, we review the present knowledge of the implication of different molecular actors in the regulation of apoptosis in prostate cancer cells. This review notably summarizes the present knowledge of the (de)regulation of the effects of androgens, p53, Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, Bax, Akt, PTEN, Par-4, clusterine, caspases and NF-kappaB in prostate adenocarcinoma cell lines and provides an appraisal of their therapeutic potential. A better knowledge of the apoptotic pathways in these cells could indeed allow the development of new selective and effective anti-cancer strategies.