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1 Departments of Biochemistry
and Medicine, Queen's University,
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
A method is described for the dispersion, isolation, and
partial characterization of epithelial and stromal tissue
cells from the rat ventral prostate. Viable epithelial and
stromal cells have been prepared from a collagenase
and trypsin digest of immature rat ventral prostates.
This mixed population of cells was fractionated on two
continuous PercollTM(a modified colloidal silica) gradients to give an epithelial-enriched fraction and a
stromal-enriched fraction (greater than 90% enrichment
for each fraction). Cells were viable as demonstrated by
exclusion of trypan blue dye and by their ability to
metabolize testosterone. Acid phosphatase activity, a
marker of androgen action in rat ventral prostate, was
found predominantly in the epithelial cell fraction.
This cell separation procedure provides a simple, rapid,
and reproducible method for the isolation of prostatic
epithelial and stromal cells that will be used for studies
of androgen-mediated differentiation in rat prostate as
it relates to changes in acid phosphatase activity. Separation of these different cell types should also permit
investigation of some of their metabolic interactions.
Key words: prostate, androgens, testosterone
Submitted on April 10, 1981
Revised on September 4, 1981
Accepted on October 21, 1981
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