Prostatic tissue cell growth and assessment.

The potential for use of cell and organ culture systems in the study of prostatic tumors is high. The nature of this organ and our lack of basic information about it limit the usefulness of in vitro techniques at present but these shortcomings can be overcome by concerted effort of interested investigators. At the present time organ culture methods are available which can yield valuable information. To achieve notable success requires considerable understanding of the method in terms of principles, detail of technique, and interpretation. Several important questions must be resolved in order for cell culture methods to achieve their potential: (1) effect of disaggregation procedures on prostatic tissue, (2) appropriate selection of specimens, particularly with regard to controls, (3) ability to clearly identify and select cell types, and (4) how to overcome the variable of serum as a source of hormones. Considering the fact that less work has been done on the prostate than most tissues, recent developments in the area of cell and organ culture seem most encouraging and the future looks bright indeed. Two continuously propagated cell lines of pupative prostatic origin have been described. One of these developed in culture apparently as the result of a spontaneous transformation while the other was propagated from an adenocarcinoma. If these cell lines can be conclusively proved to be representative of the tissues of origin we already are well on the way to the application of in vitro systems to study of the prostate.