Seventy five prostatic specimens from
cancer, BPH and normal controls were studied by light microscopic histochemical methods for the demonstration of complex
carbohydrates and some
proteins: 1)
alcian blue (AB) (pH 1.0), 2)
alcian blue (AB) (pH 2.5), 3)
Periodic Acid-Schiff (PAS), 4)
peroxidase labelled-Ricinus communis agglutinin-diaminobenzidine (PO-RCA-DAB), 5)
Concanavalin A-
peroxidase-diaminobenzidine (ConA-PO-DAB), 6) ConA-PO-DAB-
periodic acid-
m-aminophenol Fast black
salt K (ConA-PO-DAB-PA-AP-FBK). For identifying individual acidic and neutral
carbohydrates, following procedures of
enzyme digestion were performed upon some tissue sections prior to the above histochemical staining: a)
sialidase (prior to staining with AB at pH 2.5), b) streptomyces
hyaluronidase (prior to staining with AB at pH 2.5), c) testicular
hyaluronidase (prior to staining with AB at pH 1.0 or pH 2.5), d)
chondroitinase ABC (prior to staining with AB at pH 1.0 or pH 2.5), e)
chondroitinase AC (prior to staining with AB at pH 1.0 or pH 2.5), f)
alpha-amylase (prior to staining with PAS). In addition, the tissue specimens from
prostatic cancer were stained immunohistochemically for demonstration of
prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) and the serum PAP levels were also measured by radioimmunoassay. The histochemical differences in the prostatic tissue among normal control, BPH and
cancer as follows. In the tissue of
prostatic cancer,
chondroitin sulfate A, C and
hyaluronic acid were present in the interstitium.
Chondroitin sulfate,
hyaluronic acid and
sialic acid were present in the cytoplasm of
cancer cells. In the tissue of BPH
chondroitin sulfate B and
hyaluronic acid was present in the interstitium and
hyaluronic acid was present in the cytoplasm of epitherial cells. In the epithelial basement membrane of the tissue from BPH,
chondroitin B and
hyaluronic acid were present. 1,2-Glycol groups of neutral complex
carbohydrates in the interstitium of
prostatic cancer were shown to exist in smaller amounts than in that of BPH. In the cytoplasm of
cancer cells the intensity of both PO-RCA-DAB and ConA-PO-DAB staining could be divided into three groups: strong, moderate and weak. In the
prostatic cancer there was a good correlation between the intensity of PO-RCA-DAB staining and
tumor grade, and intensity of ConA-PO-DAB staining was correlated well with serum PAP level. The cytoplasm of
cancer cells showed a positive reaction to PAP immunostaining and no appreciable difference was observed according to
tumor grade.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)