Origin and Properties of Prostatic Stem Cells
Abstract
The aims of this proposal were to isolate and characterize prostatic epithelial stem cells and also to determine if bone marrow (BM) cells can differentiate into prostatic tissue. We show that the murine prostate contains a small population of cells (<1%) capable of effluxing the Hoechst dye by an active process (the side population, SP), indicating the presence of cells with features of stem cells. As SP cells expressed Sca-1, a protein expressed by stem cells of other origins, we isolated Sca-1 expressing cells and determined their proliferative ability in an in vivo prostate reconstitution assay. We show that prostate stem cells reside in the proximal region of ducts within the population that expresses high levels of Sca-1. We also show that BM stem cells can differentiate into prostatic epithelial and stromal cells. Low numbers of basal epithelial cells (-1%) are of BM origin but significant numbers of stromal cells (-15%) are derived from BM. These findings may have considerable implications for prostatic diseases such as cancer as gastric cancer has been shown to originate in BM-derived cells.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA466643
Entities
People
- E. L. Wilson
- Rashmi Gupta
Organizations
- New York University