Different procedures of enzymatic digestion of rat prostatic tissue and unique sets of mitogenic factors made it possible to culture practically pure populations of epithelial and stromal cells without previous separation of the two types of cells. Keratin-positive epithelial cells dissociated by trypsin and collagenase from adult rat ventral prostate proliferated in medium WAJC 404 supplemented with epidermal growth factor, insulin, cholera toxin, and bovine pituitary extract. Proliferation of epithelial cells was completely inhibited by dexamethasone as low as 30 nM. On the other hand, fibroblast-like stromal cells released by trypsin digestion required a plastic substratum coated with calf serum or fibronectin, and proliferated in Eagle's minimum essential medium supplemented with cholera toxin, bovine pituitary extract, dexamethasone, and bovine serum albumin. Epidermal growth factor and insulin had negligible effect on proliferation of stromal cells. Physiological concentrations of dihydrotestosterone and estradiol showed no effect on proliferation of both types of cells.

Participation of growth factors and intracellular cAMP in direct antiproliferative action of interferon alpha (IFN-alpha) was investigated in PC-3 human prostate carcinoma cell line. IFN-alpha inhibited proliferation of PC-3 cells in a dose-dependent manner in vitro, and the effect was reversible. Fibroblast growth factor, epidermal growth factor and platelet-derived growth factor, when added to the culture medium, showed no effect on growth of PC-3 cells in presence or absence of IFN-alpha. Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) significantly inhibited PC-3 cell growth, and the effect was additived to that of IFN-alpha. TGF-beta content in conditioned medium of PC-3 cells was not affected by treatment with IFN-alpha. On the other hand, IFN-alpha increased intracellular cAMP concentration about 20-fold. Dibutyryl cAMP and reagents which elevated intracellular cAMP level also inhibited PC-3 cell growth. These indicated that direct antiproliferative effect of IFN-alpha on PC-3 cells was at least partly mediated by cAMP, and that neither growth factors nor a growth inhibitor participated in the action of IFN-alpha.

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Aim : To evaluate the surgical results of the en bloc removal of the kidney and ureter with a bladder cuff by using our modified pluck method. Methods : We employed this procedure in 28 patients with renal pelvic and ureteral cancer. The clinical stages of the 28 patients were T(1-3)N(0-1)M(0). These patients were operated on by nephrectomy with standard open or retroperitoneoscopic surgery, and then standard or blind dissection of the distal ureter. After simultaneously making a transurethral circular incision of the ureteral meatus with a J-shaped electrode, the ureteral end was plucked out of the bladder, and en bloc removal of the kidney and ureter was performed from the wound.Results : The mean operating time for nephroureterectomy using the pluck method was 278 min in all cases. The mean time for the pluck procedure after nephrectomy was 24 min in 22 cases, and 73 min in six cases where the nephrectomy was carried out via a new lower pararectal wound. There were no intra-or postoperative complications associated with these procedures. Within the mean follow-up period of 25 months, there was no recurrence of tumors in the perivesical retroperitoneal space; however, the usual rate of intravesical recurrence was observed. Three patients died, two of metastatic urothelial cancer and one of heart disease. Conclusions : En bloc nephroureterectomy using our modified pluck method is a useful procedure for patients with upper urothelial cancer because of the simplicity and ease of the procedure.

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