Sex steroid receptors in normal and hyperplastic human prostate.

The concentrations of sex steroid receptors (per unit DNA) were measured in normal periurethral and peripheral prostatic tissue samples from seven men (mean age 64 years; range 54-71 years) undergoing cystectomy for bladder cancer, and in hyperplastic nodules from 15 men with BPH (mean age 69 years; range 60-89). Occupied androgen (AR) and estrogen (ER) receptors were measured with an improved exchange procedure, where receptor-binding sites were stabilized by a combinatorial procedure involving careful washout of extracellular secretory products (including proteases) prior to homogenization, inclusion of 0.5 mM phenylmethyl sulfonylfluoride (PMSF) and 20 mM molybdate in the exchange medium, and long-term incubation at 0-4 degrees C. Bound radioligands were separated by a hydroxylapatite (HAP) batch adsorption procedure. Maximal specific exchange binding of 3H-R 1881 or 3H-estradiol in total homogenates of human prostate samples was achieved after incubation periods of about 72 h at 0-4 degrees C. In contrast, progestin receptors (PR) were readily available for binding 3H-R 5020; thus overnight binding at 0-4 degrees C was routinely used to measure PR. Binding specificities and equilibrium binding constants (calculated from 8-point Scatchard plots, correcting for nonsaturable binding) were found to be characteristic for AR, PR, and ER, respectively. The receptor results obtained in this study demonstrate that no significant differences existed in total AR per unit DNA between hyperplastic and either central or peripheral prostatic tissue samples; PR was present in both zones of normal prostatic tissue as often as in BPH samples, with PR concentrations significantly lower in hyperplastic samples; and ER was irregularly detected in both normal and hyperplastic tissue in low concentration relative to AR and PR; the frequency of ER detection was much lower in BPH than in normal prostate tissue. Studies of steroid receptor content relative to enzyme markers specific for epithelial and stromal cells in BPH samples showed a positive correlation between acid phosphatase activity (a specific marker for epithelial cells) and both AR and PR. No correlation was observed between AR or PR with either prolyl hydroxylase or myosin ATPase (specific markers for stromal cells). These observations suggest that PR, as well as AR, is primarily associated with the epithelial elements of prostate. Because of the relative infrequency of ER, similar correlation of ER with enzyme markers was not possible.