Evidence of pluripotent human prostate stem cells in a human prostate primary xenograft model.
BACKGROUND
The phenotypic plasticity of the human prostate stem cell within human prostate tissue was examined to determine the response of the stem cell to changes in the androgenic environment.


METHODS
Prostate xenografts were transplanted into athymic nu/nu mice implanted with testosterone pellets, allowed to establish for 1 month time point, the hosts were castrated and pellets removed, and following 1 month of androgen deprivation, the hosts were stimulated with androgen for 2 days to induce proliferation of the residual population of stem cells (2-month time point).


RESULTS
Glands in benign xenografts harvested at the 1- and 2-month time points contained basal cell layers that expressed p63 and high molecular weight cytokeratin, and in which essentially all of the cellular proliferation was localized, consistent with the proposed localization of the prostate stem cell. Benign glandular structures in the xenografts were populated by basal, secretory epithelial, neuroendocrine (NE), or squamous cells overlaying the basal cell layer, whereas, adenocarcinoma glands in the xenografts resembled the original prostate cancer (CaP) tissue.


CONCLUSIONS
In this human prostate primary xenograft model, the residual stem cell population that survives transplantation, or androgen deprivation, maintains significant pluripotentiality as demonstrated by the capacity to generate progeny that differentiate along multiple lineages in response to microenvironmental signals, particularly along the secretory epithelial lineage in response to androgen, and along the NE cell lineage in response to androgen deprivation.
Huss
Wendy J
WJ
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA.
Gray
Danny R
DR
Werdin
Eric S
ES
Funkhouser
William K
WK
Smith
Gary J
GJ
D000728:Androgens / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D002369:Castration / Q000662:veterinary; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D007633:Keratins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D010641:Phenotype; D011467:Prostate / Q000166:cytology* / Q000254:growth & development; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D014183:Transplantation, Heterologous
D000728:Androgens; D007633:Keratins