Endocrine Abstracts

The human prostate is highly susceptible to benign and malignant proliferative changes and is associated with the development of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer (PCa), two of the most common diseases affecting elderly males. The diseased-associated stroma undergoes significant remodelling, including fibroblast-to-myofibroblast/smooth muscle cell transdifferentiation. Subsequent increased secretion of cytokines and growth factors generates a growth favour...

Prostate homeostasis and function are regulated by complex interactions between the fibromuscular stroma and secretory epithelium via locally-derived and systemic paracrine- and autocrine-acting growth factors and sex steroid hormones. Stromal tissue remodelling due to alterations in transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) and sex steroid hormone signalling are associated with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer (PCa), two of the most common proliferati...

The use of more tissue-mimetic 3-dimensional (3D) cell culture models for in vitro drug screening has significantly increased in the past with the expectation to overcome with over-interpretation of drug effects obtained with conventional 2D cultures. In this study, we characterized 3D prostate cancer (PCa) organoids where PCa epithelial cells (LNCaP, DuCaP, LAPC4) were cultured alone or with PCa-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in 96 well hanging drop plates in order to...