Inhibition by various steroids on dihydrotestosterone binding to androphilic protein in human benign prostatic hypertrophy.

The effect of various steroidal compounds on the binding of the androphilic protein to dihydrotestosterone in the cytosol of tissues of human benign prostatic hypertrophy was examined. Androgens, as well as estrogens and gestagens showed an inhibitory effect on the binding. Non-steroidal anti-androgens were revealed to be weak inhibitors on the binding. Two androphilic proteins were observed in Sephadex G-200 chromatography in fractions eluted at the void volume and in fractions appearing at the site of IgG, and the rate of inhibition on the binding of both fractions by various steroids was compared. The rate of inhibition by various compounds was generally higher in the IgG fraction than in the void volume fraction. When the ligand and inhibitors were incubated with the cytosol prior to fractionation by Sephadex chromatography, rate of inhibition was lower than that obtained when the ligand and inhibitors were reacted with fractions after chromatography. Implications of the difference observed in these two experiments are not clear at this moment. The results obtained by the protamine precipitation experiment were almost the same as those by the experiment using the extract of the unfractionated acetone-dried cytosol, therefore, the protamine procedure does not seem to precipitate the tissue specific androphilic protein specifically.