Studies on nuclear binding of dehydroepiandrosterone in hepatocytes.

Experiments were conducted to determine if dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) specifically binds to liver nuclei or interferes in the binding of other steroid hormones. Hepatocytes were isolated from obese, female Zucker rats that were treated with and without 0.6% DHEA in their diets for 2 weeks. The hepatocytes were incubated with either 3H]DHEA, 3H]estrone, or 3H]corticosterone. The nuclei isolated from the incubated cells from either control or DHEA-treated rats had no binding with 3H]DHEA, but had the expected binding with 3H]estrone and 3H]corticosterone. Furthermore, increasing concentrations of cold, unlabeled DHEA in the incubation media with 3H]estrone or 3H]corticosterone failed to have any effect on the binding of either of these steroid hormones to the nuclei. These results suggest that DHEA treatment does not exert its effects on cellular metabolism through a receptor-mediated mechanism like other steroid hormones or by interfering in the expression of steroid hormones such as estrone and corticosterone.