Figure 4
β-dystroglycan translocates to the nucleus in an androgen-dependent manner.
(A), Immunofluorescence staining for androgen receptor (AR) and endogenous β-dystroglycan (β-DG) in LNCaP cells demonstrates the shift from cytoplasmic in the absence of DHT (-DHT; top panels) to nuclear in the presence of DHT (+DHT; lower panels). Both AR and β-dystroglycan are clearly cytoplasmic in the absence of DHT and nuclear in the presence, DAPI staining is shown to indicate the location of the nucleus. Fractionation of LNCaP cells into cytoplasmic and nuclear fractions (B), (C) reveals the expected dihydrotestosterone (+DHT) dependent translocation of the androgen receptor (AR) from the cytoplasmic to nuclear fraction (B). In keeping with the immunohistochemistry a significant proportion of the β-dystroglycan is also translocated to the nucleus in the presence of DHT (C). Tubulin and nucleolin are used as markers of the cytoplasmic and nuclear fractions respectively. (D), (E), quantitative analysis of three independent cellular fractionation experiments confirms the DHT-dependent shift of β-dystroglycan from cytoplasm to nucleus. N = 3 unpaired two tailed t-test with 95% confidence interval.
