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The retinoblastoma (Rb) gene product is a prototypic tumor suppressor. Mice lacking the Rb gene are not viable and die in utero at ∼13 days of gestation. In this study, we have rescued Rb^−/− prostates by grafting pelvic organ rudiments from Rb^−/− mouse embryos under the renal capsule of adult male nude mouse hosts. Grafts of embryonic pelvic organs developed into functional prostatic tissue. Some of the prostatic tissue generated was further used to construct chimeric prostatic tissue recombinants by combining wild-type rat urogenital mesenchyme (rUGM) with Rb^−/− and Rb^+/+prostatic epithelium (PRE). The tissue recombinants were grown as subcapsular renal grafts and treated from the time of grafting with Silastic capsules containing 25 mg of testosterone plus 2.5 mg of estradiol. During 5–8 weeks of hormone treatment,rUGM+Rb^+/+PRE tissue recombinants developed prostatic hyperplasia, whereas …