Originally published as JHC exPRESS on May 3, 2007. doi:10.1369/jhc.7A7192.2007
Volume 55 (9): 885-890, 2007 Copyright ©The Histochemical Society, Inc. Epithelial Phenotypes in the Developing Human Prostate
Services de Pédiatrie (GL,M-JP) et d'Anatomie Pathologique (MY,PL,GF), Centre Hospitalier Universitaire–Université de Poitiers, Poitiers, France, and INSERM EMI 03-37, Créteil, France (OC,GF) Correspondence to: Gaëlle Fromont, MD, PhD, Service d'Anatomie Pathologique, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Jean Bernard Rue de la Miletrie, 86000 Poitiers, France. E-mail: g.fromont{at}chu-poitiers.fr
An intermediate population has been identified among prostate glands called transiently amplifying (TA) cells, which are characterized by coexpression of basal and luminal cytokeratins (CKs), high proliferation, and lack of p27 expression. These cells are rare in the normal adult prostate and increase in pretumoral conditions, but their importance in the developing gland remains unknown. We analyzed fetal prostates for the expression of CKs (5/6, 18, 19) and factors involved in proliferation and apoptosis: p63, Ki67, p27, epidermal growth factor (EGFR), Bcl2, androgen receptor (AR). Immunostaining was performed on a tissue microarray, including 40 prostates from fetuses aged 13–42 weeks and normal prostate tissue from 10 adults. In both solid buds and the basal compartment of canalized glands, cells expressed p63, CK5/6, CK19, CK18, BCL2, EGFR and were p27 negative. Luminal cells of fetal canalized glands continue to express CK19, EGFR, and BCL2, without p27 expression. In contrast, adult epithelial luminal cells showed diffuse AR and p27 expression, without CK19, BCL2, and EGFR staining. Proliferation was high and diffuse in fetal glands and rare and restricted to basal cells in adult glands. These results indicate that most fetal epithelial prostatic cells exhibit the phenotype of TA cells, suggesting their regulatory function in prostate development. (J Histochem Cytochem 55:885–890, 2007)
Key Words: development differentiation human prostate immunohistochemistry tissue array analysis
THE ADULT PROSTATE EPITHELIUM is composed of basal and luminal compartments distinguished by localization and immunophenotypic characteristics that reflect their differentiation. Basal cells specifically display a high expression of p63, cytokeratin (CK)5/6 and 14, antiapoptotic factor Bcl2, and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) (McDonnell et al. 1992
The prostate develops from the endodermal urogenital sinus (UGS) following a branching morphogenesis. Prostatic buds emerge at week 10 of gestation from the wall of the UGS and grow in the surrounding mesoderm. During branching morphogenesis of the solid epithelial buds, ductal lumina appear first in the proximal ductal areas near the urethra, then canalization progresses distally toward the ductal tips (Cunha et al. 2004
Tissues This study was performed after information of the Poitiers University Institutional Review Board on Human Subjects and in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration. Fetal tissues included 40 prostates taken during autopsy from human fetuses aged 13–42 weeks, without urogenital disorders. Tissue was fixated in 10% formalin <30 min after it was received, and the fixation was continued overnight. Tissue preservation was confirmed by hematoxylin-eosin staining of all samples before immunohistochemistry. Macerated or poorly preserved material was discarded. For comparative purposes, normal adult prostate tissue was obtained from 10 men aged 62–69 years who were undergoing cystoprostatectomy for urothelial bladder carcinoma and did not have prostate cancer. After fixation in formalin, tissues were embedded in paraffin, cut in serial 5 µm sections, stained with hematoxylin-eosin, and mounted on slides.
Tissue Microarray
Immunohistochemistry Five-µm tissue sections were placed on charged slides, which were then deparaffinized, rehydrated, and pretreated by either microwave or proteinase K (for EGFR staining) for antigen retrieval. Immunohistochemistry was performed using primary antibodies (Table 1 ). Briefly, the staining procedure was based on an indirect biotin-avidin system with a universal biotinylated immunoglobulin secondary antibody, diaminobenzidin substrate, and hematoxylin counterstain. A negative control slide was obtained after either omitting the primary antibody or incubating with an irrelevant antibody (mouse monoclonal immunoglobulin).
Scoring of Antibody Staining For all antibodies except Ki67, epithelial staining was assessed as either diffuse or focal with weak or high intensity. Focal staining is defined as rare scattered positive cells among negative cells within the same epithelial compartment. For Ki67, positive cells were expressed as a percentage of total epithelial cells. The staining profile was assessed for both buds and canalized ducts. For canalized glands, staining was analyzed in both the basal and luminal compartments. In whole mounted sections of fetal prostates (n=5) containing in the same section buds and canalized glands, a distinction was made between the staining pattern of proximal canalized glands and distal ducts (close to buds).
Statistical Analysis
The epithelial staining profile was identical in whole mounted sections of fetal prostates and TMA cores from the same fetuses. The staining pattern was also identical in all solid buds, and in all canalized glands, whatever the gestational age. However, tiny differences of staining were observed between distal and proximal canalized glands. Staining results except for Ki67 are summarized in Table 2 .
Expression of CK5/6 and p63 was found in solid buds and all basal cells in both fetal and adult glands. CK5/6 and p63 were not expressed in luminal cells. CK19 staining was observed in all epithelial fetal cells, but was restricted to the basal compartment in adult glands (Figure 1 ). CK18 staining was intense in all cells of both buds and distal fetal glands, but the intensity decreased in the basal compartment of proximal fetal glands and adult glands, whereas the staining remained intense in the luminal compartment. AR positive cells in fetal prostate were found only focally in the luminal compartment of the proximal glands, whereas the staining was diffuse in adult luminal cells. EGFR and Bcl2 positively displayed the same profile: positive staining was observed in solid buds and basal cells of fetal and adult glands. Luminal cells were diffusely positive in distal fetal ducts, only focally positive in proximal fetal ducts, and negative in adult glands (Figure 2 ). Nuclear p27 positive staining was absent in all epithelial cells of fetal prostates, with a positive internal control on neural ganglion cells adjacent to the prostate. Moreover, p27 was also expressed in other fetal tissues present on the same TMA. In adult epithelial cells p27 expression was observed diffusely in the luminal compartment, and focally in the basal compartment (Figure 3 ).
In solid buds, Ki67 staining ranged from 10% to 45%, with a median of 21% (Figure 4 ). In canalized glands, the median Ki67 percentage of positive cells was 8% (6% to 17%), with a decrease in proliferation when compared with solid buds (p<0.0004). Proliferative cells in canalized glands were found in both basal and luminal compartments (Figure 4). In adult prostatic glands, the epithelial proliferation rate was always <5%, and proliferative cells were restricted to the basal compartment. In solid buds, the median Ki67 staining was 28.5% in fetuses <23 weeks, and 20% in older fetuses (>23 weeks), but the difference was not significant (p = 0.07). The median Ki67 staining in canalized glands was 10% in fetuses <23 weeks of age, and 7% in older fetuses (p = 0.3).
TMA technology allows for the simultaneous examination of numerous tissue samples for in situ gene-expression profiling, with dramatic savings in reagent and technical costs and a gain in quality insurance. Moreover, TMA construction uses only small quantities of tissues, allowing for the study of rare or scarce biological samples with many molecular markers (Packeisen et al. 2003
Using Ki67 staining, we observed that solid buds display a significantly higher proliferative rate than canalized glands, as previously described (Xue et al. 2001b Very few studies have reported the in situ expression of differentiation markers in the fetal prostate, probably because material of developing human prostate is rarely available. We tested 40 fetuses simultaneously for several differentiation markers, including CKs, together with factors involved in proliferation and apoptosis. We found that, for all antibodies, the expression profile was identical in all buds, irrespective of gestational age. In the same way, the only small differential expression that was observed in canalized glands was between distal and proximal glands, whatever the level of fetal development. Our finding demonstrates that the degree of differentiation in human epithelial prostatic cells depends upon the phase of canalization and not upon the gestational age.
In our study, the basal cell markers CK5 and p63 were expressed in buds and in the basal compartment of both fetus and adult glands and were lost in the luminal compartment even at the early phase of canalization. In contrast, other studies found focal persistence of CK5 and p63 in the luminal fetal cells of distally canalized glands (Xue et al. 1998
We observed that the luminal cell marker CK18 was strongly positive in all cells of both buds and distal glands, as previously described (Hudson et al. 2000
CK19 is thought to represent a population in the process of differentiation into luminal cells and has been shown to be lost in terminally differentiated cells (Hudson et al. 2000
The anti-apoptotic factor Bcl2 and the EGFR have been shown to be present in basal cells and downregulated during differentiation, without expression in normal luminal adult cells (McDonnell et al. 1992
The cyclin-dependant kinase inhibitor p27 has been implicated in cell cycle arrest, and increased level of p27 is thought to signal an exit from the cell cycle (Roberts et al. 1994 In conclusion, our study demonstrates that a majority of epithelial cells in developing prostates showed coexpression of CK18 and 19, basal cell markers such as EGFR and Bcl2, a high proliferative rate, and a lack of p27 staining. This expression profile suggests that the epithelial population in fetal prostates is made up mostly of TA. Because TA could be potential targets for neoplasic transformation but are rare in the normal adult glands, further analysis of fetal TA cells may provide a better understanding of prostate carcinogenesis.
Received for publication January 19, 2007; accepted April 5, 2007
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