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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.
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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.
