Dihydrotestosterone Formation in Cultured Human Fibroblasts

The conversion of [1,2-3H]testosterone to [‘Hldihydrotestosterone has been assessed in fibroblast monolayers grown from skin biopsies of foreskin, scrotum, and various nongenital skins from 31 control men who varied in age from newborn to 25 years and three 46,XY subjects with hereditary male pseudohermaphroditism. Under the standardized conditions utilized in this study, the rate of dihydrotestosterone formation was greater in fibroblasts grown from genital skin (foreskin and scrotum) than from the nongenital skin of control subjects. This finding indicates that fibroblasts grown for 5 to 25 passages exhibit the same differentiation in dihydrotestosterone formation as the skin from which the fibroblasts were grown. Furthermore, 5cY-reductase, the enzyme that converts testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, exhibits apparent similar substrate specificity in control foreskin fibroblasts and in the foreskin itself. Fibroblasts grown from the foreskin of two patients with familial incomplete male pseudohermaphroditism, type 2, an autosomal recessive disorder of phenotypic sexual differentiation, showed a marked deficiency in the capacity to form dihydrotestosterone. In contrast, fibroblasts grown from the scrotum of one 46,XY male with familial incomplete male pseudohermaphroditism, type 1, an apparent X-linked disorder of phenotypic sexual differentiation, formed dihydrotestosterone at a normal rate.