Approximately 350,000 prostatectomies are performed each year to relieve the symptoms of urinary-outlet obstruction of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH); resulting in medical expenses that well exceed $1 billion per year in the United States. Despite efforts to seek the cause of this disorder the only factors that have been consistently associated with this disease are the presence of the testes and aging. Our findings that BPH tissue contains basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), a mitogen for mesodermal cells including prostatic fibroblasts, suggests that the growth factor may be important in the development of fibrostromal nodules characteristic of human BPH. This proposal seeks support to 1) develop new antibody to bFGF to increase the sensitivity and specificity of existing assays for the growth factor. 2) To determine the distribution of bFGF in normal prostate and BPH. Thus, testing the hypothesis that bFGF is elevated in regions of the prostate where BPH is thought to arise. 3) To determine if bFGF is synthesized by prostatic stromal and/or epithelial cells in culture. These studies will differentiate between an autocrine or paracrine regulatory role for bFGF. 4) To determine if androgen influences bFGF synthesis or availability to cells with growth factor receptor. 5) To identify the prostatic cell population with bFGF receptor and to determine if receptor binding and number is the same in cells from the normal prostate and BPH.
