Stromal fibrosis reaction in rat prostates induced by alpha 1 adrenergic stimulation

Most of the publications dealing with the experimental induction of prostatic neoplasia have focused on the description of epithelial lesions, but little attention has been paid to the involvement of their stromal alterations. The present study is a first attempt to assess the stromal changes in both collagen and elastic fibrils as well as in its cellular constituents, which accompany prostatic intraepithelial neoplastic (PIN)-like lesions induced by phenylephrine (PE) in rats. Adolescent rats received subcutaneous injections of PE daily (10 mg/kg/d) for 1 month. At the end of the experimental period the rats were sacrificed; the dissected ventral prostates were fixed in Stieve solution and paraffin-embedded; and sections were cut and stained accordingly. Most of the stromal cells were identified by immunohistochemistry techniques using primary antibodies to ED2 (resident macrophages), actin (fibrocytes and vascular smooth muscle cells), vimentin (mesenchymal cells), and 5'-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (S-phase proliferating cells). Collagen stromal mass was visualized by Gomori trichrome and individual collagen fibers by picrosirius red staining under polarized light, whereas the fine fibrils were stained according to the Pinkus method. The untreated rat prostates are characterized by a delicate interacinar stroma with scanty cells and fibrils. The PE-treated prostates showed a significant increase in both cellular and fibrillar elements as well as an increase in arteriolar density, in addition to the typical PIN lesions. The presence of such an interstitial fibrosis, which also includes inflammatory cells, neoangiogenesis, and synthesis de novo of collagen and fibers, might be regarded as a desmoplastic reaction. It is suggested that these changes could be related to a tissue repair process occurring subsequent to the inflammatory exudate that takes place during the incipient phases of the PE treatment.