Effects of testosterone on nuclear ribonucleoprotein components of prostate epithelial cells

Summary— The changes of the nuclear components caused by castration and testosterone injection were studied in epithelial cells of the ventral prostate of the rat. Castration drastically diminishes the nuclear and nucleolar volume, as well as the fraction of the nuclear volume occupied by non‐nucleo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biology of the cell 1991-01, Vol.72 (3), p.223-229
Main Authors: Echeverría, Olga, Santini, Rafael Pagán, Nin, Gerardo Vázquez
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Autoradiography
Cell Nucleus - drug effects
Cell Nucleus - metabolism
Cell Nucleus - ultrastructure
Edetic Acid
Epithelium - drug effects
Epithelium - metabolism
Epithelium - ultrastructure
gene expression
interphase
Male
Microscopy, Electron
nucleus
Orchiectomy
perichromatin granules
Prostate - drug effects
Prostate - metabolism
Prostate - ultrastructure
Rats
Ribonucleoproteins - analysis
Ribonucleoproteins - metabolism
steroid hormones
Testosterone - pharmacology
Tritium
Uridine - metabolism
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Summary:Summary— The changes of the nuclear components caused by castration and testosterone injection were studied in epithelial cells of the ventral prostate of the rat. Castration drastically diminishes the nuclear and nucleolar volume, as well as the fraction of the nuclear volume occupied by non‐nucleolar ribonucleoprotein (RNP) fibrils. However, in castrated animals the frequency of perichromatin granules (PCG) is 79% higher than in controls. Testosterone injection causes a reduction of the number of PCG to 33% of the castrated level in 15 min, and increases the non‐nucleolar RNP fibrils. Other parameters such as nuclear and nucleolar volume and the relative volume of the compact chromatin present only small changes in a period of 2 h following the hormone administration. High resolution quantitative autoradiography demonstrates that the transportation of previously synthesized RNA increases steeper than the RNA synthesis. All these effects are similar to those caused by ovariectomy and estradiol injection on the nuclear structures of endometrial epithelial cells. These similarities and other observations suggest that PCGs contain mRNA, of a few genes, stored in the nucleus by a restriction of its transportation to the cytoplasm.
ISSN:0248-4900
1768-322X
DOI:10.1111/j.1768-322X.1991.tb03019.x