Prostatic phyto-oestrogen tissue levels in different Austrian regions.
BACKGROUND
A number of studies suggest that the low incidence of prostate cancer as well as benign prostatic enlargement in Asia depends on the extended consumption of phyto-oestrogens in these parts of the world. In most Asian men, phyto-oestrogen levels are multiple higher compared to Austrian (European) men. The aim of our study was to evaluate, according to the East-West decline, whether there were significant differences within the Austrian population. We compared prostate phyto-oestrogen tissue levels of men living in three different geographical regions of Austria. We further compared men living in rural and urban environments.


METHODS
Prostatic tissue samples of 103 men undergoing surgery for benign prostatic hyperplasia or prostate cancer were collected and frozen at -40 degrees C. In tissue samples, enterolactone (representative for lignans) and genistein levels (representative for isoflavones) were determined in duplicate by monoclonal antibody-based immunoassays. We subsequently compared tissue levels of men living in rural and urban environments and different geographical regions of Austria.


RESULTS
Prostatic enterolactone tissue levels were similar in men living in an urban (median 19.1 ng/g dry weight, range 1.5-76.4) or rural environment (median 15.7 range 0.6-140.6) p = 0.99. The respective values for genistein were 20.5 ng/g dry weight (range 4.6-47.4) and 9.3 (range 0.1-156.7) p = 0.77. Furthermore, enterolactone (p = 0.1) and genistein (p = 0.65) levels were similar in three different geographic regions in Austria.


CONCLUSIONS
No significant differences regarding genistein and enterolactone were found between our study populations. However, we found a wide variation between individual patients.
Brössner
Clemens
C
Department of Urology and Andrology, Danube Hospital, Vienna, Austria. broessner@utanet.at
Petritsch
Karin
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Fink
Klaus
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Auprich
Marco
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Ponholzer
Anton
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Madersbacher
Stefan
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Adlercreutz
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Petritsch
Peter
P