PA-III rat prostate adenocarcinoma cells (review).

PA-III is one of the four transplantable cell lines propagated in vitro in cell monolayer cultures from four spontaneously developed prostate cancer tumors in aged germfree and conventional Lobund-Wistar (L-W) rats (Pollard Model). Our data documented the presence of IGF-I and glucocorticoid but the absence of IGF-II, insulin and androgen receptors in PA-III cells. Activation of IGF-I receptors by IGF-I, IGF-II and insulin stimulated the proliferation of PA-III cells. Activation of glucocorticoid receptors by dexamethasone inhibited the proliferation of PA-III cells. PA-III cells contained urokinase-like activity and expressed the mRNA for urokinase gene which was negatively regulated by glucocorticoids. The above results suggest that PA-III cells could be a useful model for the study of glucocorticoid effects on prostate cancer cells. In addition, these data are discussed in relationship to the capacity of PA-III cells to produce the osteoblastic reaction when transplanted on L-W rat skeleton. A model outlining the putative paracrine interactions between PA-III cells and rat osteoblasts is proposed.