Figure 9.

Three-dimensional reconstruction of mouse and human prostates. (A) Dorsal view of a newborn mouse urogenital sinus reconstruction showing the dorsal prostatic outgrowths (in green, arrow D) situated lateral to the prostatic utricle (white). The seminal vesicles (SV) and ejaculatory ducts have been removed from this reconstruction to clearly illustrate that the most cranial ducts from the elongated and paired anterior prostates (dark blue, AP), also known as the coagulating glands which lie adjacent to the mouse seminal vesicles. Also shown are a few of the lateral (yellow, arrow L) and ventral (light blue, arrow V) prostatic ducts. The prostatic utricle is the midline structure in white. (B) Dorsal view of a 13-week male human fetal prostate showing a similar paired pattern of prostatic ductal outgrowths from the UGS. The most cranial dorsal prostate outgrowths correspond to the equivalent anatomical location of the mouse coagulating glands. At these stages of ductal growth, the mouse and human prostate budding patterns demonstrate striking similarities. The human prostatic utricle is the midline structure in white, and also shown are the seminal vesicles (SV). (C) Lateral view of the same human UGS. Modified from (Timms, 2008) and (Timms and Hofkamp, 2011).