Heparanase promotes bone destruction and invasiveness in prostate cancer

Heparanase is an endoglycosidase that plays an important role in angiogenesis and metastasis of cancer. Herein we evaluate the effect of heparanase overexpression on invasiveness and bone destruction in prostate cancer bone metastases. The human prostate cancer cell line PC-3 was stably transfected with a plasmid containing the cDNA for human heparanase or with the vector alone as a control. Overexpression of heparanase did not affect the growth of PC-3 cells, but did promote invasiveness of the cells in an in vitro assay. Both cell types were injected into the tibias of nude mice. Four weeks later, the mice were examined radiologically prior to sacrifice and samples of leg tissue were taken to investigate bone destruction and metastasis. Mice injected with PC-3 cells overexpressing heparanase had more severe bone destruction and larger, more invasive, tumors. These results demonstrate that heparanase overexpression can facilitate tumor invasion and accelerate bone destruction caused by prostate cancer bone metastasis.