Isolation, in vitro cultivation, and electron microscopy of normal and malignant prostatic epithelial cells from the Copenhagen rat.

Procedures are described for the isolation and cultivation of normal rat prostatic epithelial cells. The techniques, which involve collagenase digestion and Ficoll purification of the epithelial population, are efficient, inexpensive, and produce pure monolayers. Included is a scanning and transmission electron microscopic study comparing cells isolated in vitro to rat prostatic epithelial cells in situ. Further ultrastructural comparisons are made to a malignant cell line, the Dunning R3327H Copenhagen rat prostatic adenocarcinoma.