Rapid, non-destructive, cell-based screening assays for agents that modulate growth, death, and androgen receptor activation in prostate cancer cells.

Background: We developed non-invasive, cell-based screening assays to rapidly and biologically assess factors that modulate prostate cancer growth and affect androgen receptor (AR) activity.

Methods: LNCaP cells, which stably express enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) either constitutively or upon AR activation, were treated with a variety of agents, and then monitored by fluorescence and MTS assays for dose-dependent changes in cell number and AR activity.

Results: The assays were validated for rapid, fluorescence-based, quantitative measurement for the presence of growth and AR modulators.

Estrogen added intermittently, but not continuously, stimulates differentiation and bone formation in SaOS-2 cells.

Although it is well established that estrogen inhibits bone resorption, its effects on bone formation remain controversial. We studied the effects of intermittent and continuous treatment with estrogen on bone formation in vitro using long term cultures of SaOS-2 cells under conditions that permit mineralization. SaOS-2 cells cultured in dexamethasone, ascorbic acid and beta-glycerophosphate for up to 17 d formed mineralized bone nodules as visualized by von Kossa staining.