Androgen receptors in cultured human skin fibroblasts

Abstract

Human skin may be considered as a target organ for androgens, since events characteristic of androgen action have been described in this tissue, as well as in cultured human skin fibroblasts. The culture of human skin fibroblasts gives the opportunity to work on living cells, under controlled conditions, in a renewable material from a single skin biopsy. Using this method, we showed the presence od DHT-receptors in the human fetus and we studied the ontogenesis of androgen receptors in relation to sexual differentiation. In the neonatal period, the physiological T rise was not concurrent with a variation in sex skin androgen receptors. The evolution of DHT binding during puberty is now under investigation. These data suggest that the androgen receptor is not modulated by plasma androgens. Androgen receptor determination is of value in defining the biochemical defects involved in partial and complete androgen insensitivity syndrome (twenty-six cases in our study). In idiopathic hirsutism, DHT binding is used to detect an eventual local hypersensitivity. Fibroblast cultures have also been shown to be an excellent model for the screening of compounds which might block the expression of androgen action by competing for the androgen receptors. Cultured skin fibroblasts are a valuable model for the study of androgen and antiandrogen action in human skin.

Androgen receptor messenger RNA and protein in adult rat sciatic nerve: Implications for site of androgen action

“…Indeed, fibroblasts have been a favored cell in culture for assessing androgen effects. For example, AR‐expressing fibroblasts have been identified in the lung (Torday, 1984; Nielsen, 1985, 1992), dermis (Sultan et al, 1982; Kaufman and Pinsky, 1983; Kaufman et al, 1983; Dammann et al, 2000; Hellwinkel et al, 2000; Asada et al, 2001) and in the testes (Verhoeven, 1980), where they have roles in tissue morphogenesis, loss and/or growth of hair, and disease states. Fibroblasts express numerous extracellular matrix (ECM) molecules, such as collagen, laminin, and fibronectin, which, in addition to providing mechanical support to cells, also function in a variety of ways as signaling and/or cell adhesion molecules (Sanes, 1989; Alberts et al, 1994).…”

The Fibroblast as a Model for Androgen Resistant States

“…When foreskin homogenates are used, some relationship to circulating testosterone concentration is suggested by a higher ratio of nuclear to cytoplasmic androgen-receptor binding in newborn, pubertal and adult males compared with prepubertal males (Fichman et af., 198 1). Androgen receptors have been demonstrated in human fetal fibroblasts (Sultan et al, 1980) and in cells from amniotic fluid (Sultan et al, 1984). Several methods have been described for the measurement of androgen receptors in genital skin fibroblasts.…”