The paracrine influence of prostatic stroma on the proliferation of prostatic epithelial cells was investigated. Using a double-layer soft agar assay it was demonstrated that stromal cells from the human prostate inhibit the anchorage-independent growth of the prostatic tumor epithelial cell lines PC-3 and LNCaP. Anchorage-dependent growth was inhibited too as was shown in the semi-automated colorimetric MTT test performed on multiwell plates. Antiproliferative activity was mediated by a diffusible factor in the stromal cell conditioned medium and was found to be produced specifically by prostatic stromal cells. Although the putative inhibiting factor shared some properties with transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) evidence is presented that the factor is different from this well-known inhibitor of epithelial cell growth. Absence of TGF-beta activity was shown by the lack of inhibitory response of the TGF-beta-sensitive mink lung cell line CCL-64 to prostate stromal cell conditioned medium and to concentrated partially purified preparations of the inhibitor. Furthermore, neutralizing antibodies against TGF-beta 1 or TGF-beta 2 did not cause a decline in the level of PC-3 growth inhibition caused by partially purified inhibitor. It is concluded that the prostate stroma-derived factor may be a novel growth inhibitor different from any of the currently described inhibiting factors.