Intracellular localization of estramustine in rat ventral prostate in vitro

With the aim of studying the mechanism behind the effect of estramustine in the treatment of prostatic carcinoma, the intracellular fate of the drug has been investigated in rat ventral prostate in vitro. Minced tissue was incubated with [3H] estramustine under different conditions, homogenized, and submitted to isopycnic centrifugation on a sucrose gradient using the recently introduced vertical tube rotor. The subcellular localization of the drug was determined by comparison between the distribution of radioactivity in the gradient fractions and the activities of a number of marker enzymes. No metabolism of estramustine occurred as judged by thin-layer chromatography. After incubation of the minced prostate tissue for 1 hour at 30 degrees C with 0.15 microM of [3H] estramustine, most of the drug was recovered in the cytosol fractions which also contained the highest concentrations of the estramustine-binding protein. However, after incubation with 220 microM of estramustine, most drug equilibrated in heavier fractions with high concentrations of N-acetyl-beta-glucosaminidase and cathepsin B, marker enzymes for the lysosomes as well as NADPH:cytochrome c reductase, marker enzyme for the endoplasmic reticulum. Extending the incubation time and increasing the temperature reduced the amount of estramustine equilibrating in the heavy fractions and concomitantly increased the portion localized in the cytosol. During all incubation conditions, very little drug seemed to accumulate in the nuclei since the drug distribution was completely different from that of DNA. This suggests that effects other than interaction with nuclear DNA might be of importance for the cytotoxic effect of estramustine.