Conditioned Media of ASC-17D Sertoli Cells Induce G1-Growth Arrest of DU145 Human Prostate Cancer Cells

We studied the effects of ASC-17D rat Sertoli cell-conditioned media (rSCCM) on the proliferation of the DU145 prostate cancer cells. rSCCM was prepared from ASC-17D cells cultured in DMEM/F-12 serum-free media at a nonpermissive temperature of $40^{\circ}C$, which is the condition for the high expression of c1usterin. We found that rSCCM could inhibit the proliferation of DU145 cells by arresting the cell cycle in the G1 phase in a dose-dependent manner. This growth arresting activity was abolished by boiling rSCCM for 5 min. The G1 growth-inhibiting activity of rSCCM was also detected in other prostate-originated cancer cells examined (i.e., LNCaP and PC-3) but not in other cells (ASC-17D, HepG2, SK-N-SH, and NIH3T3). Western blot analysis of partially purified growth inhibiting fractions with the clusterin antibody showed that the cytostatic factor in rSCCM was not c1usterin. This cytostatic factor was semi purified by DEAE-Sepharose, ammonium sulfate precipitation, and Phenyl-Sepharose column chromatography, and was estimated to have a molecular weight of 88 kDa by Sephacryl S-300 gel filtration.