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It is well established that androgens are central to regulation of the growth of the mammalian prostate gland. Conversely, androgen deprivation by castration induces rapid cell death in the ventral prostate via an apoptotic mechanism. To date, most studies of cell death in the rodent prostate have focused on the ventral lobe, with little attention directed to the dorsal and lateral lobes. The results presented herein demonstrate that cell death in the rat prostate gland caused by castration is lobe specific. In particular, castration caused decreases in wet weights and protein contents of all three prostatic lobes, but these events were more rapid and profound in the ventral than in the dorsal and lateral lobes. Reduced epithelial cell size was apparent in the three lobes as well. However, castration resulted in loss of DNA content in the ventral lobe only. To confirm this finding, and to examine apoptosis of individual cells …