Collection of postmortem prostate tissue under sterile conditions

The brief experience with the postmortem collection of human prostate glands suggests the practicality of using this source of prostate glands for laboratory investigation. This contention is supported by a wider experience gained with other postmortem tissues. The necessity for using malignant and nonmalignant tissue is self evident and does not require elaboration. The difficulty of obtaining this tissue, which must be sterile for many laboratory experiments, is also well known. Therefore, it can be anticipated that the establishment of the center for the collection and distribution of prostatic tissue to investigators may, at least in part, alleviate the problem. The degree of bacterial contamination of many tissues of human cadavers free of frank antemortem infections is not high. This is probably also the case for the prostate gland, but more extensive studies are needed to validate present preliminary observations.