Isolation of rat ventral prostate basal and luminal epithelial cells by the STAPUT technique.
BACKGROUND
The prostatic epithelium consists principally of basal epithelial cells, luminal epithelial cells, and neuroendocrine cells. Several studies support the concept that among basal cells, a subpopulation of stem cells resides which is capable of giving rise to other stem cells, basal epithelial cells, and also luminal epithelial cells and neuroendocrine cells. Other investigators suggest that luminal epithelial cells can also regenerate prostatic epithelium. Availability of pure populations of basal and luminal epithelial cells will aid in studies on defining the cellular pathways of differentiation during normal and pathological conditions. This study was designed to isolate and characterize pure populations of basal and luminal epithelial cells from adult rat ventral prostates.


METHODS
Sequential enzymatic digestion and differential plating permitted the separation of glandular epithelial cells from stromal cells. The glandular epithelial cells were subjected to the STAPUT technique.


RESULTS
Two types of cell populations, a large single-cell population and a small single-cell population, were obtained and characterized as basal and luminal epithelial cells by immunostaining for cytokeratin 5 and cytokeratin 8, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicate that purified populations of prostatic basal and luminal epithelial cells can be isolated by the STAPUT technique.
Ravindranath
N
N
Department of Cell Biology, Lombardi Cancer Center, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20007, USA.
Dym
M
M
D000818:Animals; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000379:methods*; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D008297:Male; D011467:Prostate / Q000166:cytology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley