Fig. 1

Expression profile of hormone receptors. N27, PC12, C6, and MCF7 cells express the androgen receptor splice variant, AR45, and not full-length androgen receptors. In contrast, Jurkat cells express the full-length androgens receptor but not the AR45, which indicate that Jurkat cells are useful as both positive control and negative control for full-length androgen receptors and AR45, respectively (a, b). AR45 protein is expressed in human hippocampal tissue (c). Using the C terminus domain androgen receptor antibody, AR-C19, AR45 expression was detected in the membrane fraction and the whole cell lysate of frozen hippocampal postmortem tissue obtained from donors diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. No significant differences were observed between AR45 expression in whole cell lysate versus the membrane fraction, indicating AR45 is a membrane-associated androgen receptor. As expected, full-length androgen receptors (110 kDa) were not observed in frozen samples. However, an androgen receptor fragment (70 kDa) was observed in whole cell lysate, indicating the full-length androgen receptor that resides in the cytosol and nucleus was degraded to fragments. To confirm AR45 protein expression, which is missing the N terminus domain (NTD), the AR-N20 NTD targeted androgen receptor antibody was used. No AR45 expression was detected with AR-N20 antibody. Results were determined by ANOVA. Results are reported as mean + SEM. p < 0.05; WCL, whole cell lysate; MEM, membrane fraction; AR, androgen receptor