| Abstract: | The nuclear and crude nuclear 5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) levels were measured in patients with benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) and prostatic cancer (PC). In the fundamental study using BPH tissues, nuclear DHT levels were not influenced by the treatment for nuclear purification such as DTT, Triton X-100 or DNase I. The correlation between DHT levels and androgen receptor contents was found in only the crude nuclear salt extractable fractions (r = 0.748, p less than 0.01). In the relation of DHT levels to prostatic cancer patients, crude nuclear salt extractable and salt resistant DHT in both the low grade and in early stage group were significantly higher than those in the high grade and in advanced stage. Moreover, DHT levels in the both crude nuclear salt extractable and salt resistant fractions were below 5 pg/mg protein in all of clinical non-responders to endocrine therapy, and the total crude nuclear DHT, the sum of the crude extractable and salt resistant DHT, was below 10 pg/mg protein in all of the non-responders to endocrine therapy. When the relation between the total crude nuclear DHT level and the clinical course of 34 prostatic cancer patients followed for over 12 months was studied, the elevated DHT group (over 20 pg/ml protein) responded to endocrine therapy and experienced long-term remissions, but the low DHT group (below 10 pg/ml protein) did not respond to endocrine therapy. Therefore, it is suggested that the total crude nuclear DHT levels were appropriate biochemical indicators for androgen dependency in prostatic cancer patients. |
