Abstract
The presence and possible sex differences of androgen receptor in peritoneal macrophages was investigated using immunomagnetic beads. Macrophages were incubated with different concentrations of [3H]-5αDHT in the presence or absence of a 100 fold excess of unlabelled 5α-DHT. Labelled cells were separated from unbound steroid by immunomagnetic beads coated with anti-rat macrophage antibody. The binding identified in the rat macrophages was highly selective towards androgenic compounds. The dissociation constant (kd) value for the receptor was calculated to be 3.3X10-9M and 5X10-9M for macrophages of male and female rat respectively. The number of receptors in each cell was 792±3 and 120±1 for male and female respectively. Indicating a sex differences in androgen receptor (p<0.001). Taken together it can be concluded that part of sex differences in immune responses and also auto-immune disease could be related to sex differences in androgen receptor in macrophages.
Highlights
The macrophage system has emerged as cell playing a central role in the overall immune reaction in host defence, as well as expression of immune based chronic inflammatory disease[1,2]
The graph appears to indicate the presence of one type of binding site with a Kd of 3.3x10-9M and 5X10-9M for male and female macrophages respectively
After showing the presence of androgen binding site in macrophages[44,45], the step was searching for sex differences in Kd value and the number of receptors
Summary
The macrophage system has emerged as cell playing a central role in the overall immune reaction in host defence, as well as expression of immune based chronic inflammatory disease[1,2]. Many attempts have been made to discover sex steroid receptors in other immune cells, leading to the discovery of such receptors in some of the cell subsets while not in others. This gave some indication of how these steroids might regulate the immune response by selectively acting on some cells[11,12]. Receptors for estrogens have been reported in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells[13] and in macrophages[14,15]. Receptors for androgen has been reported in human peripheral leukocyte containing 70-80% Tlymphocytes, 5% B-lymphocytes, about 10-25% monocytes and some dendritic cells[16]
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