Estrogen receptors in the human male bladder, prostatic urethra, and prostate. An immunohistochemical and biochemical study.

The distribution and quantity of estrogen receptors (ERs) in the human male bladder, prostatic urethra and the prostate were studied in eight males with recurrent papillomas of the bladder or monosymptomatic hematuria (median age 61 years), 14 men undergoing transurethral resection due to benign prostatic hyperplasia (median age 70 years), and nine men undergoing cystectomy due to malignant tumour of the bladder (median age 70 years). In the first group of patients, biopsies for immunohistochemical examination were obtained from the bladder vault, bottom, both side-walls, the trigone area, and the mid-portion of the prostatic urethra, and in the second group from three locations of the prostatic urethra (bladder neck, mid-portion and veramontanum). In the third group, tissue specimens were taken from the vault of the bladder, prostatic urethra, and the prostate, for immunohistochemical as well as biochemical analysis. In the first group, ERs were found in three out of eight specimens of the prostatic urethra, and in one of these, ERs were confined to periurethral glands. ERs could not be demonstrated in any of the bladder-biopsies. In the second group, ERs were not found in the bladder neck, but were seen in four preparations from the veramontanum and in two from the midportion of the urethra. ERs were located in the urothelium and periurethral glands. In the third group, ERs were seen immunohistochemically in the prostatic urethra (two cases) and the prostatic stromal tissue (two cases). ERs could be demonstrated in the bladder neither by immunohistochemistry nor biochemically.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)