Messenger Ribonucleic Acid Levels of Steroid 5 -Reductase 2 in Human Prostate Predict the Enzyme Activity

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Abstract
Testosterone is converted to dihydrotestosterone by 5a-reductase2 in the prostate. Dihydrotestosterone controls cell division, and inter- individual differences in prostatic 5a-reductase 2 expression and ac- tivity may be a determinant of the risk of developing prostate cancer. However, little is known about interindividual differences in intra- prostatic hormonal activity in vivo. To determine whether 5a-reduc- tase-specific messenger RNA (mRNA) is predictive of 5a-reductase activity in prostatic tissue, we analyzed 30 prostatic tissue specimens from 15 Caucasian patients, 47- 82 yr old. The mRNA was measured by RT-PCR. Five specimens consisted of cancer, whereas the remain- ing 25 were derived from benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH). We found a strong association between enzyme activity at pH 5.5 and the 5a-reductase 2-specific mRNA expression when expressed on the basis of b-actin (Spearman's rank-correlation coefficient (rs) 5 0.81; 95% confidence interval, 0.64 - 0.91; P , 0.0001). The expression of 5a-reductase 2-specific mRNA in the cancer specimens was signif- icantly lower than in the BPH tissue (P 5 0.03). There was no dif- ference in the expression of 5a-reductase 1-specific mRNA in the cancer specimens, compared with BPH (P 5 0.56). The strong asso- ciation between 5a-reductase activity at pH 5.5 and the 5a-reductase 2-specific mRNA expression makes it possible to predict prostatic 5a-reductase activity using core needle biopsies. (J Clin Endocrinol Metab 86: 855- 858, 2001)

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