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Aromatase-independent testosterone conversion into estrogenic steroids is inhibited by a 5 alpha-reductase inhibitor.

Ishikawa T, Glidewell-Kenney C, Jameson JL

Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Molecular Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Galter Pavilion, Suite 3-150, 251 E. Huron St., Chicago, Illinois 60611-2908, USA.

Estrogens are generated mainly by the action of aromatase, which converts testosterone to estradiol and androstenedione to estrone. However, in addition to estradiol and estrone, a variety of other steroids, whose synthesis is not dependent on aromatase, can stimulate the estrogen receptor. Here we show that testosterone is converted into such estrogenic steroids by aromatase-negative HeLa cells. This aromatase-independent generation of estrogenic steroids is seen in aromatase-positive MCF-7 cells as well. In both cell lines, the synthesis of estrogenic steroids was blocked by inhibition of testosterone conversion into dihydrotestosterone using a 5 alpha-reductase inhibitor finasteride, suggesting that they are generated downstream of dihydrotestosterone. This finding raises the possibility that the combination of a 5 alpha-reductase inhibitor and an aromatase inhibitor may reduce estrogenic steroids in vivo more completely than an aromatase inhibitor alone.

Published 31 January 2006 in J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol, 98(2): 133-8.
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