Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a collective term for positional and geometric isomers of octadecadienoic acid in which the double bonds are conjugated. CLA has anticancer activity in a variety of animal cancer models, and cis-9, trans-11 (c9t11) and trans-10, cis-12(t10c12) CLA are the most predominant isomers present in the synthetic preparations utilized in these animal studies. To compare the ability of c9t11, t10c12 and an isomeric mixture of CLA to inhibit TSU-Prl cell growth, cells were incubated in a serum-free medium with various concentrations of these fatty acids. The isomeric mixture inhibited cell growth in a dose-dependent manner (1-3 $mu$M) with a 41 $pm$ 1% inhibition observed at 3 $mu$M concentration after 48 hours. T10c12 also inhibited cell proliferation in a dote-dependent manner, However, the efficacy and potency of this isomer was much greater than that of the isomeric mixture with a 49 $pm$ 2% inhibition observed at 0.3 $mu$M concentration after 48 hours. By contrast, c9t11 slightly increased cell proliferation. To determine whether the growth-inhibiting effect of CLA is related to the changes in production of insulin-like growth factors (IGF) and IGF-binding proteins (IGFBP) by these cells, serum-free conditioned media were collected. Immunoblot analysis of conditioned media using a monoclonal anti-IGF-II antibody showed that both the isomeric mixture and t10c12 inhibited secretion of both mature 7,500 Mr and higher Mr forms of pro IGF-II, whereas c9t11 had no effect. Ligand blot analysis with 125I-IGF-II revealed the presence of two types of IGFBPs : 24,000 Mr IGFBP-4 and 30,000 Mr IGFBP-6. The production of IGFBP-4 slightly decreased at the highest concentrations of the isomeric mixture and t10c12. These results indicate that CLA inhibits human prostate cancer cell growth, an effect largely due to the action of t10c12. The growth inhibition may result, at least in part, from decreased production of IGF-II and IGFBP-4 by these cells.