Abstract

OBJECTIVE To clarify the clinical significance and biological function of retinol dehydrogenase-11 (RDH11) in prostate cancer (PCa) and to elucidate the downstream signaling mechanism through which it drives tumor progression. METHODS Public and in-house transcriptomic data were mined to compare RDH11 levels between PCa and matched normal tissues. RDH11 was stably silenced (shRDH11) or over-expressed (oeRDH11) in PC-3, DU145, and LNCaP cells; cell proliferation, migration, and invasion were quantified with CCK-8 and Transwell assays. RNA-seq and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) were performed to screen downstream targets and pathways. Rescue experiments in vitro and in vivo were used to confirm the mechanism. RESULTS RDH11 levels were markedly elevated in human PCa tissues and cell lines. Silencing RDH11 hindered PCa cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, whereas its overexpression had the opposite effects. Mechanistically, we identified the tropomyosin receptor kinase (TRKA) and STAT3 signaling pathway as the downstream gene and pathway of RDH11. Rescue assays using PC3, DU145, and LNCaP cells demonstrated that RDH11 facilitated PCa progression by upregulation of TRKA and the activation of STAT3 signaling. In vivo studies further confirmed that RDH11 overexpression enhanced prostate tumor growth, whereas TRKA knockdown counteracted the oncogenic effects of RDH11. CONCLUSION RDH11 promotes the development of PCa through the upregulation of TRKA and activation of the STAT3 signaling pathway.