Association of vitamin D receptors with the nuclear matrix of human and rat genitourinary tissues

Ajay K. Nangia, Jeffrey L. Butcher, Badrinath R. Konety, Barbara N. Vietmeier, Robert H. Getzenberg

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Calcitrol, 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25-D3) has an important role in the antiproliferative and growth regulatory effects on normal and neoplastic cells (e.g. prostate cancer cells). 1,25-D3 binds to the vitamin D receptor (VDR), a member of the steroid receptor superfamily. Steroids, via intranuclear receptors, have been demonstrated to have high affinity binding to the nuclear matrix, the tissue specific scaffolding of the nucleus that is involved in the organization of DNA, replication and transcription. We hypothesized that the VDR interacts closely with the nuclear matrix in both human and rat tissues. In the studies described here, nuclear matrix proteins (NMP) were extracted from a number of rat and human tissues and immunoblot analysis performed using a rat anti-VDR antibody. The results from these studies reveal that the anti-VDR antibody detects six forms of the VDR in the NMP preparations: human testis demonstrated a protein of 57 and 52 kDa molecular weight compared with 57 and 37 kDa in the rat testis. Human prostate demonstrated proteins of 52 kDa compared to rat ventral (57 and 37 kDa) and dorsal prostate (52 and 26 kDa). Human and rat bladder NMP demonstrated a protein binding at 55 kDa and rat seminal vesicle NMP binding at 48 kDa. This is the first report of VDRs associated with the nuclear matrix. The varying molecular weight proteins reactive with the anti-VDR antibody within these tissues may represent different isoforms, proteolytic cleavage of a larger VDR or post-translational modification. The VDR-NMP interaction may be involved in the tissue specific actions of 1,25-D3 especially growth regulatory and antiproliferative effects.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)241-246
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Volume66
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 1998

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIDDKD R01 DK52697) and generous support from Barry Loveday.

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Association of vitamin D receptors with the nuclear matrix of human and rat genitourinary tissues'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this