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CELLS AND THE ORIGIN OF BPH
Professor John Masters Prostate Cancer Research Centre, University College London |
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As men age their prostate increases in size, causing a condition known as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). This condition makes life very uncomfortable because as the prostate gland gets bigger it compresses the urethra, the tube which transports urine. Symptoms of BPH include dribbling, urgency, frequency and getting up at night often to pass water. As the condition worsens, men can become housebound, the urethra may become completely blocked and in the most severe cases there is kidney damage.
We do not know why the prostate grows as men age. Within the prostate there are a small number of stem cells which produce all of the other cells that make up the prostate. We believe that the stem cells may be dividing too often, causing the prostate to increase in size.
In order to test our hypothesis, we first need to identify and isolate the stem cells. We have started to do this during the first year of the project (G2006/04) and this project is a second year of funding to complete the stem cell characterisation and identify markers on the stem cells. Our aim is to find targets on the surface of the stem cells that we can hit with a new therapy such as an antibody.
This work in the first year project has progressed well so far (please see Interim Report for G2006/04). It is hoped that the present project may enable us to understand why BPH develops and to find more effective ways of controlling the growth of the prostate.Project reported by Professor Masters, 21 December 2007
Project 2007/04