Endocrine 1999 Dec;11(3):321-7
Roles of testosterone in the growth of keratinocytes through bald frontal dermal papilla cells.
Pan HJ, Uno H, Inui S, Fulmer NO, Chang C.
Department of Pathology, University of Rochester Medical Center, NY 14642, USA.
A coculture of dermal papilla cells
(DPCs) from the bald frontal scalp of stumptailed macaques with keratinocytes
derived from human neonatal foreskin revealed that testosterone inhibited keratinocyte
proliferation, and that the antiandrogen RU58841 abolished this response. This
testosterone-induced keratinocyte growth inhibition was not observed when either
type of cells was cultured alone. We also examined conditioned media from the
coculture system and demonstrated the identical testosterone-induced growth
inhibition on keratinocytes, and this inhibitory effect was conditioned media
concentration-dependent. These results suggested that the testosterone-mediated
suppression on keratinocyte proliferation might proceed through some diffusible
growth mediators in conditioned media. Differential display reverse transcriptase
polymerase chain reaction allowed us to isolate several genes from frontal DPCs
that can be either suppressed or induced by testosterone. Supervillin, a membrane-associated,
F-actin-binding protein, was identified as one of the testosterone downregulated
genes in frontal DPCs. Further characterization of these testosterone-target
genes may reveal the mechanism by which testosterone inhibits the growth of
follicular cells in androgenetic alopecia.