Spermine oxidation products are selectively toxic to fibroblasts in cultures of normal human prostatic epithelium.

Contamination with fibroblasts has been a major problem in the isolation and establishment of pure cultures of prostatic epithelium, when developing in vitro cell models for studies on carcinogenesis. Addition of spermine to culture media containing fetal bovine serum results in oxidation of spermine to unstable aminoaldehydes which decompose releasing stable acrolein. This oxidation is catalyzed by amine oxidase present in ruminant serum. Prostatic epithelial cells are resistant to these oxidation products at the levels of spermine used. However, these oxidation products are selectively toxic to normal prostatic fibroblasts, which can be eliminated from mixed cultures, and pure cultures of prostatic epithelial cells can thus be established.