Ex vivo perfusion of the canine and human prostate gland.

It has been shown that the perfused canine prostate is capable of responding to pilocarpine stimulation in vitro producing prostatic secretions similar in quantity and quality to those observed in the living dog with a prostatic fistula. Furthermore, the perfused gland is capable of metabolizing testosterone. This perfusion technique has been extended to a human prostate gland harvested from a beating heart cadaver and shows the feasibility of this procedure for future studies in the human.