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Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Quantitative PCR-based Assay to Measure Sonic Hedgehog Signaling in Cellular Model of Ciliogenesis
Published on: January 31, 2025
Hedgehog pathway responsiveness correlates with the presence of primary cilia on prostate stromal cells
Jingxian Zhang1, Robert J Lipinski, Jerry J Gipp
1Department of Urology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA. jingxian99@yahoo.com
Background:
Hedgehog (Hh) signaling from the urogenital sinus (UGS) epithelium to the surrounding mesenchyme plays a critical role in regulating ductal formation and growth during prostate development. The primary cilium, a feature of most interphase vertebrate cell types, serves as a required localization domain for Hh signaling transducing proteins.
Results:
Immunostaining revealed the presence of primary cilia in mesenchymal cells of the developing prostate. Cell-based assays of a urongenital sinus mesenchymal cell line (UGSM-2) revealed that proliferation-limiting (serum starvation and/or confluence) growth conditions promoted cilia formation and correlated with pathway activation associated with accumulation of Smoothened in primary cilia. The prostate cancer cell lines PC-3, LNCaP, and 22RV1, previously shown to lack demonstrable autocrine Hh signaling capacity, did not exhibit primary cilia even under proliferation-limiting growth conditions.
Conclusion:
We conclude that paracrine Hedgehog signaling activity in the prostate is associated with the presence of primary cilia on stromal cells but that a role in autocrine Hh signaling remains speculative.
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