Objective      To culture rat prostate capillary endothelial cells in vitro

and study their barrier function.       Methods      The rat prostate capillary endothelial cells were isolated and cultured with cell growth feature selection method. Antibody against Ⅷ factor related antigen was used for immunological identification of prostate capillary endothelial cells. Immunohistochemistry was adopted to

observe the expression of tight junction protein claudin-1. Millicell epithelial resistance measuring instrument was employed to measure the transepithelial electrical resistance of the capillary endothelial cells

and phenol red leakage test was used to detect the permeability of prostate capillary endothelial cells. The rat pulmonary capillary endothelial cells and brain capillary endothelial cells were taken as negative control and positive control respectively.       Results      The rat prostate capillary endothelial cells were successfully isolated and cultured to form compact monolayer cell structure in vitro. The immunofluorescence detection of factor Ⅷ showed that the cultured cells were factor Ⅷ-positive and green fluorescence was expressed. Immunohistochemical results showed that the tight junction protein claudin-1 was expressed between adjacent endothelial cells. The transepithelial electrical resistance peaks of in vitro cultured rat prostate capillary endothelial cells

negative control pulmonary capillary endothelial cells and positive control brain capillary endothelial cells reached 142.20±3.10

43.3±3.5 and 248.20±6.0 Ω/cm

2

respectively

and stably kept for 2~3 d

and there were statistically significant differences between the 3 groups of cells (P0.05). Phenol red leakage test showed that with the increase of the transepithelial electrical resistance

the concentration of phenol red in basal lateral region of prostate capillary endothelial cells and positive control brain capillary endothelial cells was reduced. However

in negative control pulmonary capillary endothelial cells

the change trend of phenol red in basal lateral region was not obvious.       Conclusion      The rat prostate capillary endothelial cells have similar structure and function with brain capillary endothelial cells. Prostate capillary endothelial cells cultured in vitro have certain barrier properties

and can be used as a research model of blood prostate barrier in vitro.