REGIONAL AND CELLULAR-DISTRIBUTION WITHIN THE RAT PROSTATE OF 2 MESSENGER-RNA SPECIES UNDERGOING OPPOSITE REGULATION BY ANDROGENS

We have investigated, by in-situ hybridization histochemistry, the distribution within the rat ventral prostate of the mRNAs for sulphated glycoprotein-2 (SGP-2) and ornithine decarboxylase (ODC; EC 4.1.1.17), two proteins that appear to be inversely regulated by androgens in this organ, in that the level of SGP-2 mRNA is lowered, while the activity of ODC is enhanced by the latter hormones. Low-magnification autoradiograms of whole ventral prostate sections showed that, in intact animals, the SGP-2 transcript was only detectable in restricted areas and not diffused evenly throughout the section. Reciprocally, the ODC transcript was not detectable in areas where the SGP-2 transcript was detected, but appeared distributed uniformly in the remaining parts of the section. The effect of castration on the levels of the two mRNAs was evaluated by a semiquantitative analysis of autoradiograms from whole ventral prostate sections using an autoimmune image analyser. Four days after castration, SGP-2 mRNA increased by about 11-fold, while ODC mRNA decreased by fivefold. The distribution of the two mRNAs among the different cell types, studied by treating the slides with photographic emulsion and counterstaining, showed that both were expressed exclusively in the epithelial luminal cells of the ducts. Furthermore, each of the two mRNAs preferentially accumulated in a cell population which was morphologically distinct while accumulation of the other was negligible. SGP-2 mRNA was mostly found in cuboidal epithelial cells and ODC mRNA in columnar epithelial cells. Castration caused a dramatic accumulation of SGP-2 and a decrease in ODC mRNAs in the cells of the columnar epithelium 4 days later. These data suggest that, in the ventral prostate of intact animals, SGP-2 is expressed in the proximal ducts whose luminal epithelium consists of cuboidal cells undergoing apoptotic phenomena and not in the intermediate and distal ducts characterized by columnar epithelia with active protein synthesis and cell multiplication. In the intermediate and distal parts of the ductal system the ODC gene would be expressed at a high rate while being turned off in the proximal ducts. Castration, resulting in apoptosis of the epithelial cells of the intermediate and distal ducts, caused SGP-2 to be actively expressed and ODC to be