Rainey William E, Nakamura Yasuhiro
Department of Physiology, Medical College of Georgia, 1120 15th Street, Augusta, GA 30912, USA.
J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2008 Feb;108(3-5):281-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jsbmb.2007.09.015. Epub 2007 Sep 11.
The human adrenal reticularis produces the so-called adrenal androgens, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and DHEA-sulfate (DHEA-S). As opposed to the cortisol and aldosterone little is known regarding the mechanisms that regulate the production of the adrenal androgens. Several recent studies have shown that type II 3beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (HSD3B2), cytochrome b5 (CYB5), and steroid sulfotransferase (SULT2A1) play an important role in the regulation of adrenal androgen production. Specifically, adrenal production of DHEA-S is correlated with reticularis expression of SULT2A1 and CYB5. In contrast, HSD3B2 has an inverse correlation with adrenal androgen production likely due to its unique ability to remove precursors from the pathway leading to DHEA. Therefore, its expression is limited to the adrenal glomerulosa/fasciculata but not in reticularis. The differential expression of these three proteins appears to be critical for reticularis function. In this review, we focus on studies that have begun to define the mechanisms regulating the transcription of these genes. Understanding the mechanisms controlling differential expression of these proteins should provide novel information about the human adrenal reticularis and its production of DHEA and DHEA-S.
人类肾上腺网状带产生所谓的肾上腺雄激素，即脱氢表雄酮（DHEA）和硫酸脱氢表雄酮（DHEA-S）。与皮质醇和醛固酮不同，关于调节肾上腺雄激素产生的机制知之甚少。最近的几项研究表明，II型3β-羟基类固醇脱氢酶（HSD3B2）、细胞色素b5（CYB5）和类固醇磺基转移酶（SULT2A1）在肾上腺雄激素产生的调节中起重要作用。具体而言，肾上腺DHEA-S的产生与SULT2A1和CYB5在网状带的表达相关。相反，HSD3B2与肾上腺雄激素产生呈负相关，这可能是由于其具有从导致DHEA的途径中去除前体的独特能力。因此，其表达仅限于肾上腺球状带/束状带，而不在网状带。这三种蛋白质的差异表达似乎对网状带功能至关重要。在本综述中，我们重点关注已开始确定这些基因转录调控机制的研究。了解控制这些蛋白质差异表达的机制应能提供有关人类肾上腺网状带及其DHEA和DHEA-S产生的新信息。
