Evidence for the presence of androgen receptors in human Leydig cells.
Localization of androgen receptors (ARs) in the human testis Leydig cells was examined with an AR assay and Northern blot analysis. Leydig cells, highly purified on a Percoll gradient, were used for the experiments. AR concentration in the total cell extract containing both the cytosol and nuclear fractions in Leydig cells was measured using [3H]methyltrienolone. ARs in Leydig cells showed a high affinity for [3H]methyltrienolone and the Kd and Bmax of the receptors were 1.24 nM and 11.7 fmol/mg protein, respectively. Northern blot analysis, using a 32P-labeled full-length human AR complementary DNA (cDNA) detected a 9.5-kb hybridizing band in the total RNA extracted from Leydig cells. These data can be interpreted as evidence of the existence of ARs in human Leydig cells.