Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) enhances the cell motility of androgen receptor-transfected DU-145 prostate cancer cells (DU-145/AR)

We established a clonal DU-145 prostate cancer cell line (DU-145/AR) stably transfected with androgen receptor (AR) cDNA and investigated the expression of type 1 vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) receptor (VIP1R) and type 2 VIP receptor (VIP2R) mRNA in these cells by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction analysis and the effect of VIP on the invasion and the haptotactic migration of these cells. DU-145/AR cells constitutively expressed both VIP1R and VIP2R mRNA, but the parent DU-145 cells did not. VIP increased the invasive capacity of DU-145/AR cells. VIP also enhanced the haptotactic migration of these cells to fibronectin. However, the growth of these tumor cells was not affected by VIP at any concentrations used in this study. These results indicate that VIP may play a role in the regulation of the invasion of prostate cancer.