Abstract 4948: Characterization of hTERT-immortalized prostate-derived stromal and epithelial cells: An authentic in vitro model for tumor microenvironment studies

Abstract

Abstract Tumor development begins with mutational changes to the genetic makeup of a cell, but its progression is not solely determined by the mutated cell, but also by the tumor’s microenvironment. Prostate cancer, a leading cancer diagnosed in men, has been shown to be highly influenced by its surrounding stroma, particularly fibroblasts. It has been demonstrated that cancer-associated prostate fibroblast (CAFs) differ from normal-associated prostate fibroblast (NAFs). However, human prostate cancer model systems have focused largely on prostate cancer epithelial cells. Currently, a need exists for a more physiologically relevant human cell model system to study prostate cancer progression within the context of its tumor microenvironment. In this study, we characterized three prostate-derived cells: prostate cancer-associated fibroblast (CAFs), prostate normal-associated fibroblast (NAFs) and prostate cancer epithelial (PrE) cells; all three lines were immortalized by hTERT (human telomerase reverse transcriptase) alone, and have been continuously passaged for more than 40 PDL in our hands. Our data shows that the hTERT immortalized CAFs proliferate faster than the NAFs; in addition, both CAFs and NAFs express fibroblast markers such as TE7 and alpha smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), while neither cell line expresses epithelial marker such as CK14. Both CAFs and NAFs also express elevated levels of α-SMA upon TGF-β stimulation. All three prostate-derived cells express the prostate specific marker AR, and show similar markers staining after long time passaging. Importantly, conditioned media collected from CAFs promotes tumor cell growth better than NAF conditioned media. In conclusion, CAFs, NAFs, and immortalized prostate cancer epithelium may provide a very valuable model system for the study of prostate cancer cell progression and tumor microenvironment studies. Citation Format: Luis G. Rodriguez, Russell E. McDaniel, Xiangshan Zhao, Elizabeth Turner, Christopher Annesi, Chaozhong Zou. Characterization of hTERT-immortalized prostate-derived stromal and epithelial cells: An authentic in vitro model for tumor microenvironment studies [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4948. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-4948