Expression of steroidogenic enzymes and metabolism of steroids in COS-7 cells known as non-steroidogenic cells

Mitsuki Nozaki, Shogo Haraguchi*, Takuro Miyazaki, Daichi Shigeta, Noriko Kano, Xiao Feng Lei, Joo Ri Kim-Kaneyama, Hiroyuki Minakata, Akira Miyazaki, Kazuyoshi Tsutsui

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    3 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The COS-7 (CV-1 in Origin with SV40 genes) cells are known as non-steroidogenic cells because they are derived from kidney cells and the kidney is defined as a non-steroidogenic organ. Therefore, COS-7 cells are used for transfection experiments to analyze the actions of functional molecules including steroids. However, a preliminary study suggested that COS-7 cells metabolize [3H]testosterone to [3H]androstenedione. These results suggest that COS-7 cells are able to metabolize steroids. Therefore, the present study investigated the expression of steroidogenic enzymes and the metabolism of steroids in COS-7 cells. RT-PCR analyses demonstrated the expressions of several kinds of steroidogenic enzymes, such as cytochrome P450 side-chain cleavage enzyme, 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/Δ54 isomerase, cytochrome P450 7α-hydroxylase, cytochrome P450 17α-hydroxylase/17,20-lyase, 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, 5α-reductase, cytochrome P450 21-hydroxylase, cytochrome P450 11β-hydroxylase, and cytochrome P450 aromatase in COS-7 cells. In addition, steroidogenic enzymes 3β-HSD, P4507α, 5α-reductase, P450c17, P450c21, P450c11β, and 17β-HSD actively metabolized various steroids in cultured COS-7 cells. Finally, we demonstrated that 17β-HSD activity toward androstenedione formation was greater than other steroidogenic enzyme activities. Our results provide new evidence that COS-7 cells express a series of steroidogenic enzyme mRNAs and actively metabolize a variety of steroids.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number2167
    JournalScientific Reports
    Volume8
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2018 Dec 1

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General

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