Work

DAXX and ATRX Expression in Canine Prostate and Bladder Cancer Identified by Immunohistochemistry—A Digital Quantitative Pilot Study

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The chromatin remodelling proteins DAXX and ATRX are key regulators of ge-nome stability and epigenetic processes. Alterations in their expression have been as-sociated with tumour stage and prognostic outcomes in various humane cancer types, whereas their role in veterinary oncology has received little investigation to date. We analysed canine prostate and urinary bladder samples, including 18 prostate carcino-mas (12 adenocarcinomas, 6 prostatic urothelial carcinomas), 10 non-malignant pros-tate tissues, 22 carcinomas of the urinary bladder and 6 non-malignant bladder tissues. Nuclear expression of DAXX and ATRX was assessed using fully quantitative digital immunohistochemistry. Overall, DAXX exhibited consistently higher expression than ATRX across benign and malignant samples from the prostate and bladder. DAXX and ATRX expression demonstrated a positive correlation across all prostate (ρ = 0.692, p < 0.05) and bladder (ρ = 0.488, p < 0.05) samples, suggesting coordinated regulation. They displayed organ-specific expression patterns: prostate carcinomas showed increased expression of both proteins compared with non-malignant prostate tissues. In contrast, in the bladder, expression declined with increasing tumour aggressiveness (p < 0.05). Our findings provide new insights into the potential of DAXX and ATRX as bi-omarkers, offering new insights into their clinical relevance in dogs.

Source: Veterinary Sciences

DOI: 10.3390/vetsci12121209