ISOLATION OF PROSTATE-DERIVED SINGLE CELLS AND CELL CLUSTERS FROM HUMAN PERIPHERAL-BLOOD

The detection of blood-borne prostate cancer (PCA) cells may help sith clinical staging and the further understanding of PCA metastases. We discovered prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-positive stained but not PS A mRNA-expressing blood cells by means of cell sorting and PSA reverse transcription-PCR in patients. Therefore, we developed a cytokeratin immunomagnetic method to isolate PSA-positive epithelial cells from th e circulating blood of PCA patients. We obtained blood-borne single ce lls from 6 of 10 PCA patients and clustered cells from 8 of 10 PCA pat ients. Patients with benign prostate hyperplasia tested negative for f ell clusters. The reported isolation method yielded prostate-derived c ells or clusters of them from PCA-diagnosed patients.