ヒト前立腺上皮の細胞間コミュニケーションの検討

Abstract

ヒト前立腺において, 上皮細胞, 間質細胞およびこれら相互間の細胞間コミュニケーション(IC)を検討した.1)良性前立腺組織片よりoutgrowした上皮細胞と前立腺癌組織片よりoutgrowした上皮細胞を比較すると後者のICが低い傾向を示したが有意差ではなかった.2)骨転移巣およびリンパ節転移巣由来の前立腺癌細胞は極めて低いICを示した.3)前立腺上皮細胞と前立腺間質細胞とのICはなかった.4)良性前立腺上皮細胞と前立腺癌細胞との間には良好なICはなかった.しかしながら一部の細胞間には軽度のICと思われる所見を認めた.5)各種の前立腺患者の間質細胞のICには明らかな差異はなかった

Intercellular communication (IC) among epithelial and/or interstitial cells of human prostate was evaluated. IC was measured by the dye transfer method. In brief, fluorescent lucifer yellow CH was microinjected into an individual cell and communication was measured by scoring the number of surrounding fluorescent cells. Cells used here were outgrowth cells from small tips of tissues of various prostatic diseases and established prostatic carcinoma cell line PC-3. To identify the epithelial cells, keratin staining was done. In prostatitis and benign prostatic hyperplasia, epithelial cells grew in five of six cases cultured and extent of maximum IC was from 18 to 46 cells (mean = 26 cells) at 4 to 6 culture days. Three specimens of separate cases cultured for more than one month had a maximum IC of more than 100 cells. In prostatic carcinoma, epithelial cells grew in 7 of 10 cases cultured and extent of maximum IC was from 6 to 38 cells (mean = 18 cells) at 3 to 6 days. The extent of IC among prostatic carcinoma cells was lower than that of benign prostatic diseases, though not significantly, this indicates the possibility that benign cells were present among the malignant cells in the specimens examined above. Prostatic carcinoma cells cultured from metastatic lesions of bone (PC-3) and lymph nodes had maximum IC of 3 to 5 cells. IC was very limited or absent between benign prostatic epithelium and PC-3 cells. No IC was present between prostatic epithelial and interstitial cells. Interstitial cells prepared from prostatic benign and malignant diseases similarly revealed a high extent of IC.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)