HOXB13 and prostate carcinoma: To clarify whether silencing of HOXB13 gene is mediated by DNA hypermethylation in AR− prostate cancer cells, we assessed the methylation status of the HOXB13 promoter by using the bisulfite-sequencing PCR (BSP), and we found that the HOXB13 promoter was more intensively methylated in DU145 cells in comparison with that in the lowly malignant LNCap cells (Fig. 2A, B).