Androgens activate mitogen-activated protein kinase via epidermal growth factor receptor/insulin-like growth factor 1...

Androgens are the primary regulators of epididymal structure and functions. In the classical view of androgen action, binding of androgen to the intracellular androgen receptor (AR) produces the receptor-steroid complex that has high affinity for DNA response elements and regulates the transcription of target genes. In this study, we demonstrate that in epididymal cells, 5α-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) can cause an alternative and rapid response that is independent of AR-DNA interactions and is mediated by activation of signaling pathways through the AR. We examined changes in AKT and extracellular signal-regulated protein kinases (ERK1/2) activation at early time points after DHT supplementation in the mouse proximal caput epididymis-1 cell line. DHT had no significant effect on AKT activation at any time point. However, DHT activated the ERK pathway as early as at 1 min, the pathway remained activated at 10 min, but activation was not sustained at later time points. Interestingly, ERK activation was blocked by hydroxyflutamide (HF), indicating that early ERK activation was an AR-mediated response. DHT phosphorylates steroid receptor co-activator (SRC) kinase, and this activation was required for the ERK response. EGFR and IGF1R were downstream of SRC, and these two receptors together contributed to enhance ERK and cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) phosphorylation. We postulate that this rapid action of androgen may ultimately act to modulate the transcription of genes regulated by AR in the nucleus. These results support the hypothesis that DHT can activate a pathway involving the sequential activation of MEK, ERK1/2, and CREB through the EGFR/IGF1R in an epididymal cell line.