Is oxidative stress measured by thiol/disulphide homeostasis status associated with prostate adenocarcinoma?

We aim to examine the relation between thiol/disulphide homeostasis and transrectal ultrasound guided prostate biopsy (TRUS-Bx) results and evaluate whether it was effective on the distinction of benign and malign prostate disease.

The study included 29 men histopathologically diagnosed as prostate adenocancer (Pca) (group 1), 30 men having benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) (group 2) and age match 30 healthy individuals in the control group (group 3). Thiol/disulphide homeostasis was measured using a novel automatic and spectrophotometric method.

Among the three groups, a statistically significant difference was detected among native thiol, total thiol levels and disulphide/total thiol, disulphide/native thiol and native thiol/total thiol ratios which are thiol/disulphide homeostasis parameters apart from disulphide (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, p < 0.001, p < 0.001, p < 0.001 respectively). Additionally, no significant difference was detected in albumin and total protein levels among the groups (p = 0.223, p = 0.316 respectively). Serum native and total thiol levels were high and disulphide level was low in group 1 when compared to the group 2 (p = 0.003, p = 0.007, p = 0.265 respectively). In addition, serum native thiol, total thiol and disulphide levels were low in group 1 when compared to the group 3, but while low native and total thiol levels were significant, low disulphide levels were not found significant (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, p = 0.331, respectively).

Thiol/disulphide homeostasis was found to be disturbed in Pca patients detected with TRUS-Bx. This is suggesting serum native thiol, total thiol level and ratios provides a novel biomarker for the role for oxidative stress in disease etiopathogenesis.