Serum-free coculture of stromal and epithelial cells from benign prostatichyperplasia with keratinocyte growth factor

We developed a serum-free coculture model of benign prostatic hyperplasia ( BPH) to clarify whether stromal cells stimulate growth of epithelial cells from BPH tissues. Epithelial and stromal cells from freshly isolated BPH ti ssue were cultured separately in defined serum-free WAJC 404/RPMI 1640 medi um supplemented with insulin, transferrin, selenium, hydrocortisone, bovine serum albumin, epidermal growth factor, basic fibroblast growth factor and keratinocyte growth factor. H-3-Tdr incorporation into epithelial cells an d stromal cells was used as a measure of proliferation. When epithelial cel ls were cocultured with stromal cells, 3H-Tdr incorporation into epithelial cells was increased in comparison to that in epithelial cells cultured alo ne. Dihydrotestosterone significantly increased this effect. It is likely t hat the in vitro coculture model reported here will be useful for isolating and understanding stromal cell-derived paracrine growth factor(s). Copyrig ht (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel.