Characterization of the androgen receptor in nuclei of seminiferous tubules of the mature male rat based upon radioimmunoassay of endogenous levels of bound testosterone.

A macromolecular testosterone complex which was salt-extracted from nuclei isolated from seminiferous tubules of the adult male rat was investigated by quantifying the testosterone directly by RIA. The steroid-binding capacity of the complex was destroyed by heating at both 12 and 50 C, suggesting the presence of an extremely thermolabile complex. This tubular complex was shown to be similar to the radioactively labeled androgen receptor isolated from ventral prostatic nuclei by their coelution during adsorption chromatography, by their coleution during ion exchange chromatography, their similar migration rate (4-4.46S) on both sucrose and glycerol density gradients, and their similar slow dissociation at 0 C. These observations indicate that the tubular complex contains a high affinity androgen receptor and suggest that the direct measurement of testosterone in this complex by RIA may be useful in identifying its cellular distribution.