Expression of prostasome-like granules by the prostate cancer cell lines PC3, Du145 and LnCaP grown in monolayer.

Prostasomes are a granular type of secretory product in the human prostate gland cells. It is not known, whether in vitro grown cells derived from human prostate cancers also express prostate secretory components containing granules with properties similar to the prostasomes. Therefore, we carried out the present investigation and found that cytospins of in vitro grown PC3, DU145 and LNCaP cells generally expressed a granular secretion. DU145 demonstrated the highest ratio of cells with granules (about 90%), while cytospins of PC3 and LNCaP contained less stained cells (50-70%). Purified granules from PC3 cells were immunoreactive with a monoclonal antibody (mAb78) originally raised against human seminal prostasomes. The PC3 granules also shared the property with human seminal prostasomes having an elevated UV260/UV280 absorbance ratio. On the other hand we found a low aminopeptidase activity in PC3 granules contrary to that of human prostasomes. Prostasomes may form a heterogeneous group with different properties due to the source from which they are isolated and perhaps it is justified to recognize them as different members of a prostasome family.