Androgen signaling is crucial for the growth and development, as well as for tumorigenesis of the prostate. However, many of the prostate epithelial cell lines developed previously, either normal or tumorigenic, do not express androgen receptor (AR) or respond to androgen. In order to advance our understanding on how androgen signaling regulates the growth and the differentiation status, and affects tumorigenicity of the epithelial cell, we performed experiments on HPr-1, a prostate cell line recently immortalized from normal human prostate epithelial cells. In the present study, AR was stably transfected into HPr-1 cells by replication-defective retrovirus. Treatment of HPr-1AR cells with androgen resulted in cell differentiation and growth retardation accompanied with up-regulation of cytokeratins K8 and K18, prostate specific antigen, p21 and p27, and down-regulation of c-myc, bcl-2 and telomerase activity. Our results suggest that androgen promotes the process of differentiation in a human papillomavirus 16 E6/E7 immortalized prostate epithelial cell line which may reflect the normal effects of androgen on prostate cells.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				H. Wang, D. Sun, P. Ji, J. Mohler, and L. Zhu An AR-Skp2 pathway for proliferation of androgen-dependent prostate-cancer cells J. Cell Sci., August 1, 2008; 121(15): 2578 - 2587. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S Darby, J Stockley, M M Khan, C N Robson, H Y Leung, and V J Gnanapragasam Expression of GnRH type II is regulated by the androgen receptor in prostate cancer Endocr. Relat. Cancer, September 1, 2007; 14(3): 613 - 624. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				E. C. Bolton, A. Y. So, C. Chaivorapol, C. M. Haqq, H. Li, and K. R. Yamamoto Cell- and gene-specific regulation of primary target genes by the androgen receptor Genes & Dev., August 15, 2007; 21(16): 2005 - 2017. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. J.M. Hendriksen, N. F.J. Dits, K. Kokame, A. Veldhoven, W. M. van Weerden, C. H. Bangma, J. Trapman, and G. Jenster Evolution of the Androgen Receptor Pathway during Progression of Prostate Cancer. Cancer Res., May 15, 2006; 66(10): 5012 - 5020. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				I. V. Litvinov, A. M. De Marzo, and J. T. Isaacs Is the Achilles' Heel for Prostate Cancer Therapy a Gain of Function in Androgen Receptor Signaling? J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab., July 1, 2003; 88(7): 2972 - 2982. [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. M. Delany, I. Kalajzic, A. D. Bradshaw, E. H. Sage, and E. Canalis Osteonectin-Null Mutation Compromises Osteoblast Formation, Maturation, and Survival Endocrinology, June 1, 2003; 144(6): 2588 - 2596. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. C. Whitacre, S. Chauhan, T. Davis, D. Gordon, A. E. Cress, and R. L. Miesfeld Androgen Induction of in Vitro Prostate Cell Differentiation Cell Growth Differ., January 1, 2002; 13(1): 1 - 11. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				H.-J. Ting, S. Yeh, K. Nishimura, and C. Chang Supervillin associates with androgen receptor and modulates its transcriptional activity PNAS, January 22, 2002; 99(2): 661 - 666. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]