Production of carcinoembryonic antigen by human prostate epithelial cells in vitro.

The medium from all 16 human prostate epithelial cell cultures tested contained elevated levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) or CEA-like substance; 11 of 16 had greater than 20 ng CEA/ml. In contrast, medium from cultures of other human tissues (prostate fibroblasts, genitourinary tumors, melanoma, and nontumor tissue), as well as media controls, contained less than 1 ng CEA/ml. Results indicated that CEA determination may provide a way to identify human prostatic epithelium in culture.