Terazosin treatment suppresses basic fibroblast growth factor expression in the rat ventral prostate.
OBJECTIVE
Alpha1-adrenergic receptor antagonists may not act solely on smooth muscle contractility. We evaluated the in vivo effect of the alpha1 blocker, terazosin, on the expression of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in the rat ventral prostate.


METHODS
Wistar rats were treated with terazosin (1.2 mg/kg body weight, po, every second day) for 120 days. The expression of bFGF was assessed immuno-histochemically in tissue sections and by Western blotting in whole tissue preparations.


RESULTS
Terazosin treatment did not affect prostate weight or histomorphology. In the control group, epithelial and stromal cells demonstrated positive staining for the anti-bFGF antibody. In contrast, the same staining in terazosin-treated specimens was either absent or extremely weak. An analogous difference was observed among the corresponding immunoblots.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings implicate the reduction of bFGF expression by terazosin as a potential additional molecular mechanism of its action that may include alterations in peptide growth factor mediated prostate homeostasis.
Mitropoulos
Dionisios
D
Department of Urology, University of Athens Medical School, Athens, Greece. dmp@otenet.gr
Kyroudi-Voulgari
Aspasia
A
Christelli
Evangelia
E
Zervas
Anastasios
A
Karayannacos
Panagiotis
P
D000317:Adrenergic alpha-Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D015153:Blotting, Western; D016222:Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000378:metabolism; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D011224:Prazosin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000494:pharmacology; D011467:Prostate / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
D000317:Adrenergic alpha-Antagonists; D016222:Fibroblast Growth Factor 2; C041226:Terazosin; D011224:Prazosin