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Apoptosis in rat prostatic adenocarcinoma is associated with rapid infiltration of cytotoxic T‐cells and activated macrophages
Author(s) -
Landström Maréne,
Funa Keiko
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0215(19970502)71:3<451::aid-ijc24>3.0.co;2-h
Subject(s) - apoptosis , cytotoxic t cell , estrogen , castration , infiltration (hvac) , tunel assay , cancer research , endocrinology , biology , medicine , in vitro , hormone , biochemistry , physics , thermodynamics
Rats transplanted with the androgen‐sensitive, syngeneic Dunning R3327 PAP prostatic tumor were castrated and treated with estrogen or vehicle for 4, 12 and 24 hr and for 6 weeks. Tumor growth was retarded by castration and further inhibited by estrogen. Immediately after castration, an increased number of activated macrophages and T‐cells were found in parallel with increasing apoptotic tumor cells. Administration of an immunosuppressive drug, FK 506, abolished the growth‐inhibitory effects of castration and estrogen. The tumor growth rate correlated negatively with the number of R73‐ and OX8‐positive T‐cells and NK cells and with the percentage of ED3‐positive macrophages. There was a positive correlation between the percentage of TdT‐mediated‐ dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL)‐positive apoptotic cells and that of ED3‐positive cells. Our results suggest that apoptosis of prostatic carcinoma cells induced by endocrine treatment in vivo is partly due to a rapid infiltration by immunocompetent cells. Int. J. Cancer 71:451‐455, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss Inc.