Influence of castration on RNase activity in rat ventral prostate.

Abstract

Cellular RNA content in the rat ventral prostate is decreased by castration, and therefore the influence of castration on prostatic alkaline and acid RNase activities was investigated. Castration resulted in the increase of both prostatic RNase activities pertissue protein with the resultant decrease of prostatic RNA content. RNase activities in lung or liver homogenates were not altered by the castration. Prostatic alkaline RNase activity (pH 7.9) was more sensitive to the androgen level than acid RNase activity (pH 5.5), although the latter was higher. The specific activity of alkaline RNase increased remarkably, and in a reverse relation to this, the protein content decreased in the ventral prostate after castration. Therefore, the total activity of the RNase in the prostate was hardly altered by the castration. This selective retention of the RNases would contribute to the maintenance of the RNA degradative ability during the prostate involution. Therefore, the marked decrease of RNA content in the prostate of a castrated rat would be attributed to the decline of RNA synthesizing ability and furthermore the maintenance of RNA degradative ability.