著者等はヒト前立腺癌の進展に関した2つの細胞モデルを開発した.LNCaP前立腺癌進展モデルは, 生体内での前立腺又は骨の間質細胞とLNCaP細胞との相互作用に基づいており, これによって腫瘍形成能と転移能を獲得したものである.派生株C4-2は去勢動物で容易に発育し, リンパ節, 精嚢腺, 骨に転移する.次のモデルARCaPは, 癌性腹水由来のヒト前立腺癌細胞で, アンドロゲン及びエストロゲンによって増殖を抑制され, 去勢下で腫瘍を形成した.ARCaPはアンドロゲン受容体及びPSAを低レベルで発現し, 同所移植によって肝, 腎, 骨等に高頻度で転移した.これらのモデルを用いて遺伝子治療の研究を行ったOur laboratory has developed two cellular models of human prostate cancer progression. The LNCaP prostate cancer progression model is based upon the well-known cellular interaction between human prostate or bone stromal cells and LNCaP cells in vivo. The marginally tumorigenic LNCaP cells acquired tumorigenic and metastatic potential upon cellular interaction with either prostate or bone fibroblasts. A subline termed C4-2 was observed to grow readily in castrated animals and acquired metastatic potential spreading from the primary tumor site to the lymph node, the seminal vesicles, and the axial skeleton, resulting in an intense osteoblastic reaction. The second model is ARCaP, where prostate cancer cells derived from the ascites fluid of a man with metastatic disease exhibited an Androgen- and estrogen-Repressed Prostate Cancer cell growth and tumor formation in either a hormone-deficient or a castrated environment. However, the growth of either the tumor cells in vitro or the tumors in vivo was suppressed by both estrogen and androgen. While the tumor cells expressed low levels of androgen receptor and prostate-specific antigen (PSA), they were highly metastatic when inoculated orthotopically. Distant metastases to a number of organs were detected, including the liver, lung, kidney, and bone. We have employed a human prostate cancer progression model as a system to study the efficacy of gene therapy. Results of the study show that whereas universal promoters, such as Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Rous Sarcoma Virus (RSV) promoter-driven tumor suppressors (e.g. p53, p21, and p16), were effective in inhibiting prostate tumor growth, the advantages of driving the expression of therapeutic toxic genes using a tissue-specific promoter prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and a tumor--but not tissue-specific promoter, osteocalcin (OC), are preferred. In the case of the PSA promoter, we can achieve cell-kill in PSA-producing human prostate cancer cells. To circumvent the supporting role of bone stroma for prostate cancer epithelial growth, we have recently developed a novel concept where the expression of therapeutic toxic genes is driven by a tumor--but not a tissue-specific OC promoter. Osteocalcin-thymidine kinase (OC-TK) was found to efficiently eradicate the growth of osteosarcoma, prostate, and brain tumors both in vitro and in vivo. We observed that androgen-independent human prostate cancer cells lines expressed OC-TK at higher levels than androgen-dependent human prostate cancer cell lines. We have obtained data to suggest that Ad-OC-TK plus a pro-drug acyclovir (ACV) may be used as an effective therapy to treat prostate cancer bone metastasis in models where the growth of androgen-independent PC-3 and C4-2 tumors in the bone has occurred
