Glandular epithelial induction by embryonic mesenchyme in adult bladder epithelium of BALB/c mice.

Tissue recombinants prepared with epithelium of the urinary bladder of adult mice and mesenchyme of the embryonic urogenital sinus were grown as renal capsular grafts in adult male hosts. Under these conditions the bladder epithelium, which is derived embryologically from the urogenital sinus, was induced to form prostate-like acini. The relevance of this observation to McNeal's (1978) hypothesis, that the formation of prostatic acini during the development of human benign prostatic hyperplasia may be a reexpression of the embryonic inductive capacity of the prostatic stroma, is discussed.