ABSTRACT
Moral and ethical considerations have limited experimentation in humans and resulted in the rat as the main model for prostatic research, particularly in the field of steroid hormone receptors and hormone action. Prolactin (PRL) receptors in rat prostate have been quite extensively studied for most part using radiolabeled PRL and cell free homogenates in a binding assay. An immunocytochemical assay, using either a polyclonal PRL antiserum or a spectrum of monoclonal antibodies to prolactin on benign prostatic specimens or neoplastic prostatic tissue, demonstrated an increased intensity of cytoplasmic epithelial staining on those sections which had been preincubated with human PRL. Consideration in favor of measuring PRL receptor molecules within sections rather than PRL itself, related to the dramatic changes in concentration of this hormone in blood and tissue fluids due to stress and anesthetics prior to tissue biopsy. M. Asano originally reported an elevated biologically assayable PRL concentration in the urine of a small number of patients with prostatic cancer.
