TITLE:
In-Vitro Determination of Biological and Anabolic Functions of Weak Androgen Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) Using a Variety of Cell Lines
AUTHORS:
James L. Cox, Yingzi Chang, Pandurangan Ramaraj
KEYWORDS:
Dehydroepiandrosterone, Various Cell Lines, Biological Functions, Anabolic Function
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases,
Vol.5 No.8,
August
26,
2015
ABSTRACT: Dehydroepiandrosterone
(DHEA) is a weak androgen and is shown to have anti-cancer, anti-atherogenic,
anti-adipogenic and anti-inflammatory effects on mouse, rat and rabbit models.
However, human clinical trials data did not support animal findings and were
inconclusive. These systemic differences in biological actions between rodents
and humans were attributed to the low level of DHEA in rodents. In order to
further understand the differences in biological functions between rodents and
humans, we resorted to an in-vitroapproach
involving mouse, rat and human cell lines to assess DHEA biological and
anabolic functions separately and independently without systemic influence.
Results indicated that DHEA was effective on mouse and rat cell lines but not
on human cell lines, as observed in in-vivo studies. In addition, our in-vitrostudy showed that DHEA
was able to induce myogenesis in mouse mesenchymal cells revealing its anabolic
function, even though DHEA was considered as a weak androgen. This observation
lent credence to the ban on DHEA by IOC medical commission, citing DHEA as an
anabolic steroid. These in-vitro experiments suggested that the
differences in biological actions of DHEA between rodents and humans existed
not only in-vivo at the systemic level, but also in-vitro at the cellular level and thus paving
the way to study the mechanism responsible for these differences at the
cellular level itself.