The team found that the androgen receptor spurs white blood cells known as macrophages to produce a chemical messenger called TNF-alpha, which in turn stimulates the body's inflammatory response. The receptor also plays a role recruiting macrophages to the site of injury. When the team blocked the receptor, there were fewer macrophages and less TNF-alpha at the wound site, and the wound healed much more quickly.

"It is a surprise that the androgen receptor is involved in wound healing in so many ways," said Chang, who is a faculty member in the departments of Pathology and Urology and the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center. "People have suspected that the receptor plays a role in wound healing, but it's new that it plays a direct role guiding circulating macrophages to the area."

Shutting off the interaction between the androgen receptor and androgen hormones like testosterone is a goal in several areas of medicine. The action is taken by doctors most commonly to treat patients with advanced prostate cancer. For some patients, doctors prescribe "chemical castration" and shut down the body's supply of hormones like testosterone. This causes severe, systemic side effects that can include impotence, loss of libido, osteoporosis, and fatigue.

Scientists like Chang are exploring another way to prevent that same interaction, by shutting down the androgen receptor itself in select tissues but keeping the flow of hormones intact.

Messing, a surgeon who regularly treats men with prostate cancer, says that the ability to turn off the effects of androgens in just the tissues necessary is a challenge but holds great promise.

"Currently there is no way of preventing androgens in your body from reaching just one particular wound or one specific part of the body," said Messing. "To stop them anywhere, you need to turn off androgens throughout the body, which has severe and unpleasant side effects, particularly in men. Turning off the androgen receptor only where you want to, and nowhere else, could lead to new treatments for diseases like prostate cancer and for speeding wound healing."

Source: University of Rochester Medical Center