Fig. 3.

Stromal AR inhibits prostate cancer growth in vitro and in vivo. PC3 cells were co-cultured with PShTert (squares) or PShTertAR (circles), or grown alone (diamonds), for 8 days, in medium containing 10-nM synthetic androgen R1881 (3A) or in androgen-free medium (3B). Assays were performed in triplicate. (A) PShTertAR inhibited PC3 cell growth in the presence of androgen. (B) Both PShTert and PShTertAR stimulated PC3 cell growth in androgen-free media. (C) Effects of stromal cells on subcutaneous tumour growth in nude mice xenografts, 32 days after injection. No tumour growth with stromal cells (PShTert) only; middle, smaller tumour growth with PC3 cells only and PC3 plus PShTertAR; and enhanced tumour growth after co-injection of PShTert and PC3 cells in xenograft experiments. (D) Tumour volume after co-injection of PC3 together with PShTert (black columns) and PC3 together with PShTertAR (grey columns), compared with PC3 alone (white columns). Error bar represents SEM value. The P-value, calculated from the t-statistics on a particular day described by the same statistical distribution. Each column represents measurements of 10 tumours. (E) Histology and immunofluorescent stains of representative tumour sections. Haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stain showing sections of tumour xenografts from PC3, PC3 with PShTertAR and PC3 with PShTert, mimicking poorly differentiated human prostate cancer. AR immunofluorescent staining of tumour xenografts of PC3 (left inset), PC3 with PShTertAR cells (middle inset), and PC3 with PShTert cells (right inset), 400× magnification.