| Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in men, as determined by Landis et al (1998). Thus, research on this devastating illness is both appropriate and necessary as the culture strives to find cures and other therapeutic methods for treatment. Additionally, such cancer has the propensity to metastasize to bone, further creating devastation for sufferers of the disease. Therefore, it is the aim of this research to foster greater understanding of the pathophysiology of the disease. In doing so, DU145 androgen independent prostate cancer cells were cultured upon a collagen type III matrix, which revealed both the morphological and attachment characteristics of this cell/cell and cell/matrix interactions. In order to understand the metastasis of prostate cancer to bone, hFOB 1.19 fetal osteoblast cell line was characterized on this collagen matrix. The collagen matrix was then modified with demineralized bone particles, which contained bone morphogenetic proteins. Both matrices elicited polymorphic variations of both cell types, as well as specific growth and proliferation patterns, possibly induced by the integrin/FAK mediated signaling pathway. In addition, the demineralized bone matrix caused formation of osteoblast aggregates or clusters implicated by the bone morphogenetic proteins and the mediated signaling pathway. Finally, to understand the propensity of prostate cancer cells to metastasis to bone, both cell types were cultured on opposite sides of the type III collagen barrier. |
