Correlation of embryonic development and adult neoplastic changes of human prostate

We have studied embryonic and fetal differentiation of the human prostate in relation to androgen-producing Leydig cell differentiation. We have studied the differentiation of human prostatic glands and the synthesis of acid phosphatase in vivo and in vitro. These studies have shown that the mesenchyme at the level of the openings of the para- and mesonephric ducts to the urethra was the local initiator of prostatic differentiation. All prostatic acini developed by epithelial outgrowths from the urethral epithelium. None of them grew from para- or mesonephric ducts. However, the epithelium on the colliculus seminalis differed from the rest of the urethral epithelium morphologically and in acid phosphatase content. Androgens accelerated differentiation in vitro and acid phosphatase activity was shown to be present in prostatic urethral epithelium and prostatic acini both in vivo and in vitro. According to these studies embryonic differentiation gives no direct answer to the localisation of adult neoplastic changes in different parts of the prostate, although in the posterior part there might be a mixture of cells from ductal and urethral epithelium. Secretion of acid phosphatase seems to be a constitutional phenomenon of this part of epithelium and is partly regulated by androgens. Epitheliomesenchymal interaction is important in differentiation and the role of this interaction in adult diseases might be valuable to be studied.