Effect of vitamin A and methylprednisolone on canine prostate in organ culture

Age dependency of androgen and estrogen effects on incorporation of (3H)-thymidine by rat prostates in organ culture

Organ culture of the rat ventral prostate has been evaluated as a model for studying the biological effects of androgen agonists, androgen antagonists, and estrogens. Explants were cultured for up to 8 days, and incorporation of (3H)-thymidine and (3H)-uridine by the explants was measured. Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) increased the incorporation of (3H)-thymidine/microgram DNA when compared with the untreated controls at 4 days, P less than .05; and at 6 days, P less than .01. Enhanced uptake in explants from 6 to 8-week old rats also was observed with 10 nM estradiol (P less than .05) and 10 nM cyproterone acetate (P less than .02). DHT (10 nM) caused greater enhancement of uptake in explants from 3-week-old rats than in explants from 6- or 12-week-old rats. In contrast, estradiol (E2) increased incorporation only in prostates from the 6-week-old rats. Since both DHT and E2 can enhance (3H)-thymidine uptake even though they are associated with strikingly different effects on prostate morphology, it suggests that their effects on (3H)-thymidine incorporation are mediated by different cells.

Dexamethasone and retinyl acetate similarly inhibit and stimulate EGF- or insulin-induced proliferation of prostatic epithelium

Prostatic epithelium proliferates in a defined medium consisting of basal medium RPMI1640 containing transferring (1 microgram/ml), EGF (10 ng/ml), and insulin (3.7 micrograms/ml or 0.1 IU/ml). Although neither dexamethasone nor retinyl acetate affected the proliferation of prostatic epithelium in RPMI1640 containing transferrin alone, they modify the mitogenic effect of EGF and insulin. Dexamethasone at 10(-10) M or retinyl acetate at about 3 X 10(-9) M inhibits proliferation stimulated by EGF. Higher concentrations of dexamethasone (10(-8) - 10(-6) M) or retinyl acetate (3 X 10(-8) - 10(-7) M) enhance the mitogenic activity of EGF. Dexamethasone had a similar effect in the presence of insulin. However, retinyl acetate stimulated, but did not significantly inhibit, proliferation in the presence of insulin. These results suggest that both dexamethasone and retinyl acetate, and possibly other glucocorticoids and retinoids, may regulate the proliferation of prostate epithelium by a dose-dependent modification of the activity of insulin and EGF.

Chemotherapy and wound healing

This paper provides a review of common chemotherapeutic agents and the experimental evidence supporting their effects on wound healing. Correlation with clinical studies is used to establish relevance, and therapeutic guidelines are developed.

The culture of hormone-dependent epithelial cells from the rat ventral prostate

This paper describes a method for obtaining cultures of rat ventral prostate epithelial cells. The prostate is first perfused with a collagenase solution before removal from the animal; subsequent mincing and incubation in vitro produces a suspension of alveolar cell clumps. Upon incubation, these clumps attach to the surface of the culture dish and spread into discrete epithelial cell colonies, which both retain differentiated morphology, and secrete a species of plasminogen activator that is characteristic of prostatic tissue. These properties were not observed in cultures prepared from single cell suspensions of the same organ. Maintenance of epithelial colony integrity and secretory activity specifically required the continued presence of stromal cells, glucocorticoids and insulin. Androgenic steroids were much less effective than glucocorticoids in stimulating plasminogen activator secretion and in maintaining colony integrity, in spite of the well-established androgen dependence of prostatic tissue morphology in vivo and in organ culture. Furthermore, no effects of prolactin were observed, either when this hormone was tested alone or in conjunction with steroid hormones. Of 3 retinoids tested, retinal was highly cytotoxic at concentrations in the range of 1 microM, whereas retinol and retinoic acid were without detectable effect.