Although inflammation is considered an important factor for promoting carcinogenesis, further evidence is still needed to draw definitive conclusions on its role in prostate cancer (PCa) development and progression. This study characterized the radius, specific membrane capacitance (SMC), and Youngs modulus of 20 patient-derived prostate cells, including 6 patients diagnosed with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), 5 patients diagnosed with BPH accompanied with chronic inflammation (BCI), and 9 patients diagnosed with PCa. The characterized results show that the three groups of cells possess approximate radius value. Both BCI and PCa cells show larger SMC values than BPH cells. Only PCa cells possess lower Youngs modulus than BPH cells, the stiffness of which is approximate to that of BCI cells. Additionally, experiments have testified that inflammatory cytokine, (i.e. TNF-α\alpha) can induce the increase of cellular SMC values. The finds demonstrate that inflammation is linked to cancer promotion process and accompanied with cellular biophysical changes, providing a new insight into the effects of inflammation in promoting PCa.

中文翻译：

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炎症赋予良性前列腺增生细胞与前列腺癌细胞相似的物理特性


尽管炎症被认为是促进癌变的重要因素，但仍需要进一步的证据来就其在前列腺癌（PCa）发生和进展中的作用得出明确的结论。本研究对 20 名患者来源的前列腺细胞的半径、比膜电容 (SMC) 和杨氏模量进行了表征，其中包括 6 名诊断为良性前列腺增生 (BPH) 的患者、5 名诊断为 BPH 伴有慢性炎症 (BCI) 的患者，以及9名患者诊断为PCa。表征结果表明，三组细胞具有近似的半径值。 BCI 和 PCa 细胞均比 BPH 细胞显示出更大的 SMC 值。只有 PCa 细胞的杨氏模量比 BPH 细胞低，其刚度与 BCI 细胞接近。另外，实验证明炎症细胞因子（即TNF-αα）可以诱导细胞SMC值的增加。研究结果表明，炎症与癌症促进过程相关，并伴随着细胞生物物理变化，为炎症促进前列腺癌的影响提供了新的见解。