2003•Methods and Findings in Experimental and Clinical PharmacologyRequires access
Upregulation of Fas and FasL expression in testosterone-induced apoptosis of macrophages
H Zhang, Zhendong Zhu, Lei Liu, Dongbo Guo, Tianyuan Jiang, L Wang, Zhigang Qiao
Open publisher page 6 citations
Abstract
To the best of the authors' knowledge, there have been few reports on the effect of testosterone on the apoptosis of macrophages. In this report, we studied the effect of testosterone on the apoptosis of bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMMs) and the function of the Fas/Fas ligand (FasL) system in the process. Results showed that testosterone treatment in vitro at the physiological concentration of 10 nM did not induce the apoptosis of BMMs. However, BMMs underwent apoptosis when treated at higher concentrations of testosterone (100, 200 and 400 nM). Testosterone-induced apoptosis was associated with the enhanced expression of Fas, FasL, and caspase-8. These data suggest that the Fas/FasL system may play an important role in the testosterone-induced apoptosis of macrophages.