Calcium channel antagonists delay regression of androgen-dependent tissues and suppress gene activity associated with cell death.

Androgen deprivation subsequent to castration of an adult male rat results in the regression of sexual accessory tissues. Regression of these tissues involves the massive death of androgen-dependent cells. Using the rat ventral prostate gland as a model to study androgen-programed cell death, we have characterized a series of molecular events that accompany its regression. This analysis has shown that there was a sequential induction of specific gene transcripts in the ventral prostate gland following castration. The first event in this cascade was an abrupt induction of transcripts encoding c-fos. Since c-fos expression has been linked to perturbations in intracellular Ca2+ levels, we investigated whether membrane-mediated Ca2+ flux might be an early physiological step involved in the death of prostatic cells. To test this, rats were treated simultaneously upon castration with either verapamil or nifedipine, two different calcium channel antagonist drugs. Compared to the ventral prostate glands of untreated castrated rats, the glands of the calcium channel antagonist-treated rats showed a significant delay in all parameters associated with regression (loss of wet weight and DNA content and delay in histological changes associated with prostatic regression). The seminal vesicle glands of treated rats also showed signs of delayed regression. Furthermore, calcium channel antagonists suppressed the induction of transcripts encoding both c-fos and testosterone-repressed prostate message-2 (TRPM-2), a gene expressed exclusively by dying cells, during the first 62 hr following castration. These findings further support a role for calcium ion influx in the pathway leading to hormonally programed prostate cell death, and suggest the intriguing possibility that modulation of this activity can alter the process by which cells die.