Acteoside reduces testosterone by inhibiting cAMP, p450scc, and StAR in rat Leydig cells

[摘要] The present study investigated the in vivo and in vitro effects of acteoside on testosterone production in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. The in vivo experiment revealed that acteoside reduced the testosterone level in serum significantly (P<0.05). The in vitro experiment also illustrated that acteoside significantly reduced testosterone production in SD rat Leydig cells in primary culture (P<0.05). Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay results demonstrated that acteoside significantly reduced the cyclic adenosine 3', 5'-monophosphate (cAMP) level (P<0.05), and Western blot analysis showed that acteoside significantly reduced cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme (p450scc) and steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) expression (P< 0.05). Hoechst 33342 staining and Western blotting showed that acteoside did not induce apoptosis in Leydig cells. Together, these results suggest that the acteoside-induced reduction in testosterone production in rat may be at least partially due to down-regulation of cAMP, p450scc, and StAR, but not apoptosis.

[学科分类] 分子生物学，细胞生物学和基因

[关键词] Leydig cells