美国Genentech的研究人员通过让小鼠反复经历雄性激素缺乏和雄性激素补充的周期，其前列腺会反复缩小和再生。这表明存在前列腺干细胞。

研究人员曾用不同细胞表面标记来识别前列腺干细胞的候选目标，但它们对前列腺干细胞都没有特异性。现在，Leong等人报告说，他们识别出细胞因子受体CD117（也叫c-kit或干细胞因子受体）为一种罕见的小鼠前列腺干细胞群的一个标记。利用这个标记，并结合其他方法，他们分离出了在移植到活小鼠体内后能生成一个可以发挥功能的前列腺的单个细胞。

推荐原始出处：

Nature 456, 804-808 (11 December 2008) | doi:10.1038/nature07427

Generation of a prostate from a single adult stem cell

Kevin G. Leong1, Bu-Er Wang1, Leisa Johnson1 & Wei-Qiang Gao1

1 Department of Molecular Biology, Genentech, Inc., 1 DNA Way, South San Francisco, California 94080, USA

The existence of prostate stem cells (PSCs) was first postulated from the observation that normal prostate regeneration can occur after repeated cycles of androgen deprivation and replacement in rodents¹. Given the critical role of PSCs in maintaining prostate tissue integrity and their potential involvement in prostate tumorigenesis², it is important to define specific markers for normal PSCs. Several cell-surface markers have been reported to identify candidate PSCs, including stem cell antigen-1 (Sca-1, also known as Ly6a), CD133 (Prom1) and CD44 (refs 3–10). However, many non-PSCs in the mouse prostate also express these markers and thus identification of a more defined PSC population remains elusive. Here we identify CD117 (c-kit, stem cell factor receptor) as a new marker of a rare adult mouse PSC population, and demonstrate that a single stem cell defined by the phenotype Lin^-Sca-1⁺CD133⁺CD44⁺CD117⁺ can generate a prostate after transplantation in vivo. CD117 expression is predominantly localized to the region of the mouse prostate proximal to the urethra and is upregulated after castration-induced prostate involution—two characteristics consistent with that of a PSC marker. CD117⁺ PSCs can generate functional, secretion-producing prostates when transplanted in vivo. Moreover, CD117⁺ PSCs have long-term self-renewal capacity, as evidenced by serial isolation and transplantation in vivo. Our data establish that single cells in the adult mouse prostate with multipotent, self-renewal capacity are defined by a Lin^-Sca-1⁺CD133⁺CD44⁺CD117⁺ phenotype.