[The immunohistochemical determination of p53 and of proliferating cell nuclear antigen in the epithelial nuclei of benign prostatic hyperplasia following the accident at the Chernobyl Atomic Electric Power Station].

With the purpose of studying into the morphogenesis and proliferous activity of the prostatic epithelium under a long-term exposure to low doses of ionizing radiation there have been conducted comparative histological and immunohistochemical (expression of p53 and proliferous cellular nuclear antigen-PCNA) investigations designed to study benign prostatic hyperplasia in patients living in those Ukraine territories affected by radionuclide contamination (group III), residents of Kiev (group II), and patients having been operated on before the Chernobyl accident, having constituted the control group I. It has been found out that the incidence of prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN), the level of nuclear expression of proteins p53 (in the PIN epithelium) and PCNA (in the epithelium of both benign prostatic hyperplasia and PIN) of patients in groups II and III are by far higher as compared with those in group I. The stroma of benign prostatic hyperplasia in patients of groups II and III was clearly different from that in the control group in that the former was characterized by apparent phenomena of hyalinosis, sclerosis, fibrosis, and extensive inflammatory infiltration, which changes can be explained by a long-term systematic exposure of prostatic tissue to low doses of ionizing radiation.