Here is a study that gave supplemental testosterone to men with low T, and found that it did not increase the T levels in the gland. What do you make of this?
I had assumed that testosterone enters the prostate cell, crosses the cell wall, by diffusion; that is, because of the concentration gradient. This seems to say that that is not the case, doesn't it? Bizarre.
Martin,
Just because you pump more stuff into the blood, does not mean that tissue has to proportionately increase uptake.
& Morgentaler has placed T saturation at much lower levels than the hypogonadism cutoff of 350 ng/dL. Certainly, saturation occurs before 250 ng/dL.
If the men had been castrate at baseline, it would be a different story.
-Patrick
T is a signaling molecule, the blood system is the distribution mechanism, and the means of entry into the gland is diffusion across the cell wall. Diffusion depends on the differences in concentration.
If the level in the blood is higher than in the gland, T will diffuse into the gland.
If the level in the gland is higher than in the blood, T will diffuse out of the gland.
This is not the case, they say, apparently, but why??
Some claim above must be incorrect, but which one?
T enters the prostate cell by binding to the androgen receptor.
"Lipid -soluble hormones are able to diffuse directly across the membranes of both the endocrine cell where they are produced and that of the target cell, as the cell membranes are made of a lipid bilayer.
These hormones can bind to receptors that are located either in the cytoplasm of the cell or within the nucleus of the cell."
The quote is from here:
courses.lumenlearning.com/b...
And, testosterone is a steroid hormone, ie lipid-soluble.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stero...
& yet, this failed to happen, according to your initial post.
The first Key Takeaway from your link, above:
"Hormones can only affect cells that display receptors that are specific to them."
Once Morgentaler's saturation limit is reached, additional blood levels become irrelevant.
What is the biological fate of excess T in a prostatic cell where the ARs are loaded?
My question is about the chemical concentration of T in the gland,
not about the biological effect of that concentration.
As to what happens to T, and how long lived is any molecule of T, I have not seen any discussion. One assumes as T is degraded, that the concentration is lowered, and more T is able to enter from the blood. (?)
Nala,
But there was a large TRT study, that I posted recently, that found less PCa than in hypogonadal men who declined TRT.
-Patrick
Is there seasonality to testosterone levels?
ODD Question regarding Testosterone Levels BEFORE ADT
Testosterone levels
