Nerve growth factor and the concept of neural-epithelial interactions. Immunohistochemical observations in two cases of vasitis nodosa and six cases of prostatic adenocarcinoma.

The so-called perineural invasion is a well-recognized, but poorly understood, phenomenon occurring in vasitis nodosa, a benign epithelial proliferation of the vas deferens; such unusually close epithelial-neural interactions also occur, among others, in benign and malignant conditions of the prostate. In the present study, immunoreactive nerve growth factor was found in the epithelium of these organs. This nerve growth factor is thought to possibly play a role in the process of the so-called perineural invasion.