NERVE GROWTH-FACTOR STIMULATES IN-VITRO INVASIVE CAPACITY OF DU145 HUMAN PROSTATIC-CANCER CELLS

The prevalence of nerve growth factor (NGF) production in different hu man prostatic tumor cell lines (DU145, PC-3, LNCaP-FGC) was investigat ed using a specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and comp ared to that of different human and rat prostatic tissue samples. In a ddition, the biological effects of NGF beta addition to the human pros tatic cancer cell cultures were investigated. The ELISA technique show ed the DU145 cell line to secrete measurable levels of NGF in the cult ure medium. When neurite-outgrowth determination in a pheochromocytoma cell line was used as a bioassay, the NGF synthesized by DU145 cells was confirmed to exhibit functional biological activity. No effect of exogenously added NGF could be established on tumor cell proliferation , on the basis of either colorimetric tetrazolium-based staining assay or bromodeoxyuridine incorporation. Also the expression of prostate s pecific acid phosphatase was not influenced by NGF addition. However, the in vitro invasive capacity (Matrigel) of DU145 cells was significa ntly increased by inclusion of 50 ng or 100 ng NGF beta/ml culture med ium. In view of the clinically well-known perineural invasion of prost ate cancer cells, the possible involvement of NGF as a (paracrine) fac tor in prostatic cancer metastatic behavior should be investigated fur ther.