A pilot study on the transcriptional response of androgen- and insulin-related genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells induced by testosterone administration in hypogonadal men

The aim of the present study is to determine whether testosterone (T) administration changes the expression profile of androgen- and insulin-related genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). To this end, we evaluated the gene expression profile of 19 genes (AKT2, CCND1, GSK3ALPHA, IGF1, GSK3BETA, FOXO3, IL6, IGFBP2, UGT2B17, ARA55, CREBBP, CYP11A, HSD17B1, HSD17B7, UGT2B7, SELADIN 1, CLU, PGC1, AKR1C1) selected according their function in the androgen pathways, in a series of 11 hypogonadal men pharmacologically treated with T. We noted that 7 genes were differentially expressed, five of them were up-regulated (AKT2 FC=2.39, CREBBP FC=11.2, GSK3beta FC=5.6, UGT2B7 FC=4.49, UGT2B17 FC=2.88) and two were down-regulated (ARA55 FC= -2.0, CYP11A FC= -2.47). This experience suggests that androgen- and insulin-related genes can be considered useful blood genomic biomarkers for specific steroid drugs