ANDROGEN ASSIMILATION BY THE EPITHELIUM AND MUSCLE OF THE GUINEA-PIG SEMINAL VESICLE

¹ Departments of Surgery (Division of Urology) and Pharmacology, West Virginia University Medical Center, Morgantown, West Virginia

The assimilation of radioactive testosterone by various tissues of the male guinea pig has been examined. The tissues studied were skeletal muscle, liver, intestine, seminal vesicle and prostate gland. Particular emphasis was placed upon the characteristics of androgen assimilation in separated preparations of the epithelium and muscle of the guinea-pig seminal vesicle. Relative to the sex accessory tissues, the gastrocnemius muscle, the liver and the separated epithelial and muscle preparations of the ileum possessed little ability to metabolize testosterone to dihydrotestosterone or other metabolites. In both in vivo and in vitro experiments, the seminal vesicle exhibited the greatest ability to assimilate testosterone. The epithelium of the seminal vesicle had a much greater ability to metabolize testosterone to dihydrotestosterone than the muscle. This metabolic difference was observed in both homogenates and slices of the tissue. Such findings indicate the greater ability of the epithelium to form dihydrotestosterone was due to a more active intracellular metabolism rather than a greater transport of androgen. In addition, homogenates of the epithelium and muscle had a greater ability to metabolize testosterone than the slices, indicating that the cellular membranes posed a significant barrier to the intracellular penetration of testosterone. An examination of the subcellular distribution of testosterone and its metabolites revealed that differences between the distribution of androgens in the epithelium and muscle cell lines were apparent in all subcellular fractions. The epithelium contained higher content ratios of total steroid than the muscle in all subcellular fraction.