Early studies indicated that mast cells in prostate tumor microenvironment might influence prostate cancer (PCa) progression. Their impacts to PCa therapy, however, remained unclear. Here we found PCa could recruit more mast cells than normal prostate epithelial cells then alter PCa chemotherapy and radiotherapy sensitivity, leading to PCa more resistant to these therapies. Mechanism dissection revealed that infiltrated mast cells could increase p21 expression via modulation of p38/p53 signals, and interrupting p38-p53 signals via siRNAs of p53 or p21 could reverse mast cell-induced docetaxel chemotherapy resistance of PCa. Furthermore, recruited mast cells could also increase the phosphorylation of ATM at ser-1981 site, and inhibition of ATM activity could reverse mast cell-induced radiotherapy resistance. The in vivo mouse model with xenografted PCa C4-2 cells co-cultured with mast cells also confirmed that mast cells could increase PCa chemotherapy resistance via activating p38/p53/p21 signaling. Together, our results provide a new mechanism showing infiltrated mast cells could alter PCa chemotherapy and radiotherapy sensitivity via modulating the p38/p53/p21 signaling and phosphorylation of ATM. Targeting this newly identified signaling may help us better suppress PCa chemotherapy and radiotherapy resistance.
Keywords: ATM; docetaxel; p38; prostate cancer; radiotherapy.