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Published-Ahead-of-Print May 23, 2007, DOI:10.2164/jandrol.107.002873

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Effects of long-term castration on the smooth muscle cell phenotype of the rat ventral prostate

Eliane Antonioli , Alexandre Bruni Cardoso , and Hernandes Carvalho *

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: hern{at}unicamp.br.

Smooth muscle is an important component of the prostatic stroma. We have previously shown that, despite extensive morphological changes, smooth muscle cells (SMCs) of the rat ventral prostate preserve some differentiation markers 21 days after castration. In the present study we investigated whether the expression of SMC markers is preserved in the rat ventral prostate after long-term castration. Adult Wistar rats were castrated and sacrificed 100 days after surgery. The ventral prostate was processed for histology, stereology, immunocytochemistry (SM{alpha}-actin and SM-myosin heavy chain [MHC]), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and RT-PCR (smoothelin, sm22, calponin). The prostate of castrated rats showed a significant weight reduction, corresponding to only 5.6% of the control. Stereology showed that SMCs occupied the same proportion of the prostate volume, but suffered a significant reduction in absolute volume (5.5% of control). The SMCs were retracted and showed a spinous outline. TEM revealed the presence of an abundant myofibrillar component, dense plaques and an external lamina in these cells. SMCs were reactive to antibodies against SM{alpha}-actin and SM-MHC and expressed mRNA for smoothelin, sm22 and calponin. The results confirm that rat prostatic SMCs are affected by androgen deprivation. Though showing marked phenotypic changes, these cells express SMC markers at the protein (SM{alpha}-actin and SM-MHC) and mRNA (smoothelin, sm22 and calponin) levels. These observations support the idea that SMCs may modulate their phenotype (contractile vs. synthetic) without changing the differentiation state.


Key words: Prostate • Reproductive Tract • differentiation • myosin heavy chain • smooth muscle cells






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