Fig. 1

Expression of ghrelin and In1-ghrelin in prostate cancer. a. Ghrelin or In1-ghrelin mRNA expression in biopsies from patients with high-risk PCa (n = 52) and normal prostate from patients that underwent cystoprostatectomy (n = 12). Expression levels were determined by qPCR and adjusted by a normalization factor (NF) calculated from ACTB and GAPDH expression levels; b. ROC curve analysis to determine the accuracy of ghrelin or In1-ghrelin mRNA expression as diagnostic test to discriminate between high-risk PCa patients and controls using the same cohort. c. Correlations between ghrelin or In1-ghrelin expression with Ki-67 mRNA expression in PCa patients d. Correlations between ghrelin or In1-ghrelin expression with GOAT enzyme mRNA expression in PCa patients. e. Correlations between ghrelin or In1-ghrelin with PSA in PCa patients; f. Expression of acylated-ghrelin (ELISA) or acylated In1-ghrelin (RIA) in the plasma of patients with PCa (n = 30) and controls (n = 20); g. ROC curve analysis to determine the accuracy of acylated ghrelin or acylated In1-ghrelin plasmatic protein expression as diagnostic test to discriminate between PCa patients and controls. h. Ghrelin mRNA expression levels in normal-like prostate cell line (RWPE-1) or PCa cell lines; i. In1-ghrelin mRNA expression levels in normal-like prostate cell line (RWPE-1) or PCa cell lines. Absolute mRNA levels from different passages (n ≥ 3) were determined by qPCR and adjusted by ACTB. Asterisks (*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001) indicate values that significantly differ. Data represent mean ± SEM