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Understanding hormones: mechanisms of androgen receptor function in reproduction and cancer

Published on December 1, 2007 Reviewed on April 12, 2022   53 min

A selection of talks on Reproduction & Development

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0:00
My name is Elizabeth Wilson, I'm professor of Pediatrics in Biochemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I've prepared this lecture entitled "Mechanisms of Androgen Receptor Function in Reproduction and Cancer". There have been many exciting developments in the field of nuclear receptors, of which these steroid receptors form a subset. Studies on the androgen receptor are particularly important in relation to its function in terms of this syndrome of androgen insensitivity and also in prostate cancer.
0:34
This is a simplistic diagram of androgen action. In humans there is only one receptor for androgens and the two biologically active androgens are testosterone, shown here as T or dihydrotestosterone or DHT. Testosterone is the major circulating form of androgen in the male, and it's produced by the testes. And then in peripheral tissues testosterone is converted to dihydrotestosterone, which is a more active androgen. Binding of either of these androgens targets the receptor to the nucleus, where then interacts with specific DNA response elements. The androgen receptor in the nucleus acts as a docking site for a number of interacting proteins. These include co-regulatory proteins, the most well known of which are the SRC or steroid receptor coactivator, p160 family. Then more than 50 interacting proteins and also corepressors.

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Understanding hormones: mechanisms of androgen receptor function in reproduction and cancer

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