Evidences that Permixon is an antiandrogenic agent. Proliferative and morphological studies on prostatic cell lines

We studied the androgenic and antiandrogenic effects of the n-hexane lipid/sterol extract of Serenoa repens (Permixon(R)*), in the two prostatic long term cell lines LNCaP and PC3, respectively responsive and unresponsive to androgen stimulation, by H-3 thymidine incorporation studies and transmission electron microscopy. The role of wild type androgen receptor was elucidated by cotransfection experiments. In LNCaP cell line, Permixon(R) induced a double proliferative/differentiative effect, not observed in PC3 cells. In PC3 cells cotransfected with wild-type androgen receptors and CAT reporter genes under the control of androgen-responsive element, the drug evidenced a clear antiandrogenic action.