Human benign prostatic hyperplasia in organ culture: studies on iododeoxyuridine uptake

Prostate tissue architecture and function may be retained in vitro using organ culture. However, the application of the technique is limited due to the lack of simple means for measuring tissue response, for instance to factors controlling cell growth. It is confirmed in this study that measuring the uptake of the radioactive precursor of DNA, 5-[125I]-iodo-2'-deoxyuridine, is simple, rapid, and reproducible provided the heterogeneity of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is taken into account. Factors affecting the reproducibility (numbers of replicate explants and dishes), specificity (removal of unbound radioactivity and uptake into killed tissue), and sensitivity (radioactive concentration and exposure period) of this technique were investigated. A particular advantage of this approach is that histological assessments are made on the same tissue used for biochemical measurements. Furthermore, the method is sufficiently simple to permit serial investigations chronologically concerning factors, such as hormones, controlling BPH cell growth.