Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology, Physiology and Biophysics, Campinas State University, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil.
Microsc Res Tech. 2013 May;76(5):486-95. doi: 10.1002/jemt.22191. Epub 2013 Mar 26.
The female prostate is a differentiated organ found in several mammal species, including humans and rodents. This gland has been related to important functions on female reproductive biology. Although the factors, which regulate prostate's development and activity are not well known, its functionality has been related to steroid hormones. It is well established that cyclic changes of estradiol and progesterone levels promote histophysiological adaptations of the whole female body. In contrast, only a few is found about those adaptations in female prostate. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of estradiol and estradiol + testosterone association on gerbil female prostate in order to verify, which hormonal associations are necessary to its homeostasis. For this, adult females had the ovaries surgically removed. After recovering, they received estradiol and estradiol + testosterone doses through 30 days, each 48 h. The prostatic tissue underwent morphological and morphometric-estereological analysis. Hormonal restriction caused great gland involution and decreased secretory activity, aspects that were reverted by exposure to estradiol and estradiol + testosterone. However, these hormones were not able to re-establish the normal prostate histoarchitecture. The immunoreaction of steroid receptors (ER-α, ER-β, and AR) responded differently among the experimental and control groups, and PCNA assay showed a decrease in epithelial cell proliferation within groups that had hormone privation. Therefore, we conclude that estradiol and testosterone are able to influence prostate morphophysiology and the maintenance of gland homeostasis depends on a balance among these and other hormones.
女性前列腺是一种在包括人类和啮齿动物在内的几种哺乳动物物种中发现的分化器官。该腺体与女性生殖生物学的重要功能有关。尽管调节前列腺发育和活性的因素尚不清楚，但它的功能与类固醇激素有关。已经确立的是，雌二醇和孕酮水平的周期性变化促进了整个女性身体的组织生理学适应。相比之下，关于女性前列腺的这些适应，人们知之甚少。因此，本研究旨在评估雌二醇和雌二醇+睾酮联合对沙鼠女性前列腺的影响，以验证哪些激素联合对其体内平衡是必要的。为此，成年雌性动物通过手术切除卵巢。恢复后，它们接受了雌二醇和雌二醇+睾酮剂量的治疗，持续 30 天，每 48 小时一次。前列腺组织进行了形态学和形态计量-立体学分析。激素限制导致腺体严重退化和分泌活动减少，而暴露于雌二醇和雌二醇+睾酮可逆转这些变化。然而，这些激素未能恢复正常的前列腺组织学结构。甾体受体（ER-α、ER-β 和 AR）的免疫反应在实验组和对照组之间表现不同，并且 PCNA 检测显示在激素剥夺的组中上皮细胞增殖减少。因此，我们得出结论，雌二醇和睾酮能够影响前列腺的形态生理学，并且腺体的体内平衡的维持取决于这些激素和其他激素之间的平衡。
