Concentration and cellular distribution of androgen receptor in human prostatic neoplasia: can estrogen treatment increase androgen receptor content?

The concentration of androgen receptor in cytosol (free and total sites) and nuclear fractions from benign (28 specimens) and malignant prostatic tissue from treated (16 specimens) and untreated patients (10 specimens) were assayed using [3H]methyltrienolone (3H R-1881) as ligand under conditions which stabilize AR and prevent binding of 3H R-1881 to progesterone receptor. It was found that optimum results were obtained when sodium molybdate (10 mM) was added after separation of the nuclear pellet rather than during tissue homogenization; when cytosol and nuclear exchange assays were carried out at 15 degrees C rather than at 0 degrees C; and when hydroxylapatite was used to separate free and bound steroid in the nuclear assay. Although AR values were variable in both BPH and carcinoma tissue, certain patterns of concentration, occupancy, and cellular distribution were observed in different patient groups. In BPH and untreated carcinoma tissue, the mean occupancy of cytosol AR by endogenous androgens was high, but the mean nuclear AR concentration was higher in BPH than in carcinoma tissue. Androgen receptor concentrations in tissue from orchiectomized patients were consistent with the effects of androgen deprivation: total cell AR was depleted, and a higher proportion was present as free cytosol AR. However, in tissue from most patients who had been treated with diethylstilbestrol (DES) on a long-term basis, total cell AR values were high. Although most of the AR was present as free cytosol AR, in three of four patients who had been treated with both orchiectomy and DES, the concentrations of bound cytosol AR and nuclear AR were similar to those in untreated patients.