¹Department of Urology, Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine, Asahimachi, Abenoku, Osaka, Japan

Correspondence: Dr H Kawashima, Department of Urology, Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-4-3 Asahimachi, Abenoku, Osaka 545-8585, Japan. E-mail: hidenori@msic.med.osaka-cu.ac.jp

Received 21 January 2009; Revised 7 April 2009; Accepted 8 April 2009; Published online 26 May 2009.

Abstract

We examined the effect of E₂ and selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) on the proliferation and estrogen receptor (ER) activities in normal human prostate cells. SERMs such as toremifene, raloxifene and tamoxifen suppressed the proliferation of prostate epithelial and stromal cells whereas anti-androgens did not. In prostate stromal cells, the transactivation activities of ER were enhanced by adding E₂ and reduced remarkably by toremifene. The results indicate that the ER-mediated pathway plays a central role in the growth of normal prostate cells.