Systematic characterization of human prostatic fluid proteins with two-dimensional electrophoresis.

We present a systematic analysis of human prostatic fluid with two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (the ISO-DALT system) and a characterization of normal and disease-related protein patterns. A reference map for prostatic fluid proteins was established by analysis of pooled prostatic fluids from 80 men (age less than or equal to 50 years) without prostatic lesions. Proteins in prostatic fluid that share immunogenicity with serum proteins were identified by use of antibody to whole human-serum protein in an affinity-column fractionation of a reference pool and differential analysis of the absorbed (serum components) and unabsorbed (non-serum components) fractions. Individual prostatic fluids from 30 patients (eight with prostatic cancer, 10 with prostatitis and benign prostatic hyperplasia, six with benign prostatic hyperplasia alone, and six with asymptomatic chronic prostatitis) were scored qualitatively with respect to the presence or absence of 57 major prostatic fluid proteins. Statistically significant, disease-correlated alterations were observed for at least eight of the proteins so scored.