Objective
Tumour
development begins with mutational changes to the genetic makeup of a cell; however tumour
progression is not solely determined by the mutated cell, but also by the
tumour’s microenvironment. Prostate cancer, is highly influenced by
its surrounding stroma, particularly fibroblasts, and it has been demonstrated that
cancer-associated prostate fibroblasts (CAFs) differ from normal-associated
prostate fibroblasts (NAFs).
Currently, a need exists
for a more physiologically relevant human cell model system to study prostate
cancer progression within the context of its tumour microenvironment. In this
study, we characterized three prostate-derived cells: CAFs, NAFs, and prostate
epithelial cells (PrEs); all three lines were immortalized by(human telomerase
reverse transcriptase (hTERT) alone, and have been continuously passaged for
more than 40 PDL in our hands. Our data shows that the hTERT-immortalized CAFs
proliferate faster than the NAFs; in addition, both CAFs and NAFs express
fibroblast markers such as TE7 and alpha smooth muscle actin (a-SMA), while neither cell
line expresses epithelial markers such as CK14. Importantly, conditioned media collected from CAFs promotes tumour
cell growth better than NAF conditioned media. In conclusion, CAFs, NAFs, and
immortalized PrEs may provide a very valuable model system for the study of
prostate cancer cell progression and tumour microenvironment studies.
