Fig. 1
CAPE treatment suppressed transcriptional activity of androgen receptor (AR). The pRL-TK-Renilla luciferase plasmid and p3xARE-∆56-c-Fos-GL3 reporter gene plasmid were co-transfected into HEK293 cells constitutively expressing AR (HEK293-AR) for 5 h, and cells were then treated with increasing concentration of DHT (0, 0.1, 1, 10 nM) and CAPE (0, 20, 40 μM) for 48 h. AR transcriptional activity in HEK293-AR cells (a), PC-3AR cells (b), or LNCaP FGC cells (c) was then determined by luciferase-reporter gene assay. Gene expression level of PSA in LNCaP 104-S cells (d) and LNCaP 104-R1 cells (e) treated with increasing concentration of DHT (0, 1, 10 nM) and CAPE (0, 10, 20, 40 μM) for 48 h was determined by qRT-PCR. GAPDH was used as loading control. Asterisks *, **, and *** represented statistical significance p < 0.05, p < 0.01, and p < 0.001, respectively, between the treatment group and the control group. AR protein level in HEK293-AR cells (f), LNCaP C4–2 cells (g), and PC-3AR cells (h) treated with indicated concentration of DHT or CAPE for 48 h was determined by Western blotting assay. The numbers under the blot represented the protein level of AR normalized to the loading control β-actin