Comparison of prostate epithelial cells from intact and castrated mice

Androgen is critical for the growth of the murine prostate. Castration removes the predominant source of androgen in the mouse, leading to prostatic atrophy and death of epithelial cells. However, studies show that epithelial cells which remain in the castrated prostate are enriched for progenitor activity compared to the intact prostate. We performed gene expression profiling of basal and luminal epithelial cells isolated from paired intact and castrated adult male C57BL/6 mouse prostates to gain insights into the mechanisms promoting survival in castration-resistant epithelial cells. 3 distinct sets (biological replicates) of adult male (8 weeks) C57BL/6 mice were subjected to surgical orchiectomy (castration) or remained intact. Four weeks post castration, castrated and paired intact animals were sacrificed and epithelial subsets were isolated from dissociated prostate tissues using fluorescence activated cell sorting. Luminal cells have the antigenic profile Lin- CD49f(lo) EpCAM+ and basal cells have the antigenic profile Lin- CD49f(hi) EpCAM+.