Effect of cyproterone acetate on the action and metabolism of testosterone in the mouse kidney.

Cyproterone acetate given alone or in combination with testosterone propionate or 5alpha-dihydrotestosterone to castrated male mice does not exhibit an antiandrogenic action on the kidney. It functions rather as a slightly renotropic hormone, even potentiating the renotropic activity of androgens. The administered amount of cyproterone acetate to intact males or castrates supplemented with androgens, however, decreased dramatically the weight of seminal vesicles and of spleen. Cyproterone acetate treatment of the animals influences in vitro the testosterone to androstenedione conversion but not the activity of 5alpha-reductase in the mouse kidney slices.