Profile of prostatic-specific antigen in prostatic carcinomas

Prostatic carcinomas (PCs) may be divided into two distinct categories: latent PCs, found mostly at autopsy, and clinical cases, which present with signs and symptoms. These two categories correspond fairly well to histologic grading of PCs and immunoperoxidase staining for prostatic specific antigen (PSA). The objective of this study was to find quantitative and qualitative differences if any, of PSA in PCs, corresponding to Gleason's histologic grade. By radiometric assay of PSA in tissue cytosol, PCs especially those of high histologic grade, were found to have lower PSA concentrations than normal and glandular hyperplastic prostatic tissue. Western blotting of cytosol was performed to detect differences between immunoreactive PSA of PCs compared with noncancerous tissue using both polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies against PSA. Western blotting with anti-PSA revealed some different bands between cancerous and noncancerous cytosols. Western blotting of cancerous and noncancerous cytosols was also performed using anti-prostatic acid phosphatase and anti-beta micro-seminoprotein. Reduced PSA concentration and different immunoblotting pattern of PSA were found to be characteristic for PCs, especially in carcinomas with grades higher than 7, which usually present with more aggressive invasion and metastases.