This review summarizes the history of research on mesenchymal–epithelial interactions in
prostatic development from the first studies in 1970 to the present. From this study we have
learned that prostatic development requires a reciprocal interaction between epithelium and
mesenchyme in which urogenital sinus mesenchyme induces and patterns epithelial
development and differentiation, while developing prostatic epithelium induces and patterns
mesenchymal differentiation into smooth muscle and other resident cell types in the stroma …