Androgen inhibits the growth of carcinoma cell lines established from prostate cancer xenografts that escape androgen treatment.

Most prostate cancers escape endocrine therapy by diverse mechanisms. One of them might be growth repression by androgen. We reported that androgen represses the growth in culture of MOP cells (a sub-line of LNCaP cells) and that of MOP cell xenografts, although tumor growth becomes androgen-independent (AI). Here we explore whether AI tumors contain androgen-responsive cells. ME carcinoma cells were established from AI tumors. The responses to androgen were examined by cell counting, DAPI labeling, flow cytometry, PSA immunoassay and tumor size follow-up. Androgen receptors (AR) were analyzed by western blotting and DNA sequencing. The pattern of responses of these cells to androgen was compared to that of MOP cells and that of JAC cells established from LNCaP-like MOP cells. R1881, a synthetic androgen: (1) repressed the growth of all the six ME cell lines obtained, MOP and JAC cells, (2) augmented the secretion of PSA, (3) induced spectacular cell bubbling/fragmentation and (4) blocked the cell cycle and induced a modest increase of apoptosis. All the androgen-repressed cells expressed the same level of mutated AR as LNCaP cells. In nude mice, the growth of ME-2 cell xenografts displayed transient androgen repression similar to that of MOP cells. In culture neither fibroblasts nor extra-cellular matrix altered the effects of R1881 on cell proliferation. These results demonstrate that androgen-independent tumors contain androgen-responsive cells. The apparent discrepancy between the responses to androgen of tumors and those of carcinoma cells in culture suggests that microenvironmental factors contribute to the androgen responsiveness of tumor cells in vivo. These modifications, albeit unspecified, could be suitable targets for restoring the androgen responsiveness of AI tumors.