The adult prostrate depends on androgens for its growth and function - its epithelium regresses when androgens are depleted. FGF signalling, through the FGF receptor FGFR2, has been implicated in mouse prostate development, but studies of FGFR2's role in prostate organogenesis have been hampered by the early embryonic death of Fgfr2-null mutants. On p. 723, Fen Wang's group report, from their studies of conditional Fgfr2 mutant embryos,that FGFR2 is required for prostate growth and morphogenesis and for certain aspects of this organ's androgen dependency. Branching morphogenesis is particularly affected in these mutants, and despite the continued ability of Fgfr2 conditional mutant prostates to secrete proteins in response to androgen, their ability to regulate tissue maintenance in an androgen-dependent manner is compromised. As advanced prostate tumours can often grow independently of androgen, further studies into the molecular mechanisms that define how FGFR2 regulates the prostate's maintenance and growth in an androgen-dependent manner could yield new therapeutic targets for the treatment of these aggressive cancers.
Prostates get into shape with FGFR2
Prostates get into shape with FGFR2. Development 15 February 2007; 134 (4): e403. doi:
Download citation file:
Advertisement
Cited by
Call for papers: Uncovering Developmental Diversity
Development invites you to submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue: Uncovering Developmental Diversity. This issue will be coordinated by our academic Editor Cassandra Extavour (Harvard University, USA) alongside two Guest Editors: Liam Dolan (Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austria) and Karen Sears (University of California Los Angeles, USA).
Choose Development in 2024
In this Editorial, Development Editor-in-Chief James Briscoe and Executive Editor Katherine Brown explain how you support your community by publishing in Development and how the journal champions serious science, community connections and progressive publishing.
Journal Meeting: From Stem Cells to Human Development
Register now for the 2024 Development Journal Meeting From Stem Cells to Human Development. Early-bird registration deadline: 3 May. Abstract submission deadline: 21 June.
Pluripotency of a founding field: rebranding developmental biology
This collaborative Perspective, the result of a workshop held in 2023, proposes a set of community actions to increase the visibility of the developmental biology field. The authors make recommendations for new funding streams, frameworks for collaborations and mechanisms by which members of the community can promote themselves and their research.
Read & Publish Open Access publishing: what authors say
We have had great feedback from authors who have benefitted from our Read & Publish agreement with their institution and have been able to publish Open Access with us without paying an APC. Read what they had to say.