Localization of Immunoglobulins in Human Prostatic Tissue

Abstract Prompted by recent reports of the successful therapeutic use of cryosurgery for destroying benign and malignant human prostatic tissue (1) and of the reported occurrence of an “immunologic response” accompanied by remission in cases of metastatic adenocarcinoma of the prostate following cryoprostatectomy (2), we have endeavored to study the immunologic and immunochemical properties of the prostate in man and in experimental animals (3). In view of the identification of rabbit IgG in coagulo-prostatic fluid, a secretory product of the coagulating and prostate glands of the male rabbit (4), and of the recent observation of the in vivo binding of rabbit IgG to the stroma in a serpentine manner within the folds of each acinus and to accumulations of secretory granules lying within the lumen of the rabbit prostate (5), we though it would be of interest to examine human prostatic tissue for the presence of in vivo bound immunoglobulins.