Aim: To determine whether an electronic nose can differentiate cultured nonmalignant and malignant prostatic cells from each other and whether the smell print is secreted to the surrounding medium.
Materials & methods: Prostatic nonmalignant (EP-156T and controls) and malignant (LNCaP) cell lines, as well as conditioned and unconditioned media, were collected. The smell prints of the samples were analyzed by a ChemPro(®) 100 electronic nose device. The data were normalized and dimension reduction was conducted. The samples were classified and misclassification rates were calculated.
Results: The electronic nose differentiated the nonmalignant and malignant cell lines from each other, achieving misclassification rates of 2.9-3.6%. Cells did not differ from the conditioned medium but differed from the unconditioned medium (misclassification rates: 0.0-25.6%).
Conclusion: Malignant and nonmalignant prostatic cell lines have distinct smell prints. Prostatic cancer cells seem to modify the smell print of their medium.