BOOK REVIEW

Androgen Action: Methods and Protocols

Fahri Saatcioglu (Editor)

Rating: ★★★ (three stars out of five)
ISBN: 9781617792427.397 pages
Publisher: Humana Press

Description

Androgens are indispensable hormones during the normal development of the male reproductive system and are critical for the initiation and/or progression of a number of pathological conditions such as prostate cancer. Androgenic signals are generally mediated by the androgen receptor (AR), a ligand-dependent nuclear transcription factor. The current volume provides detailed protocols to determine androgen levels, actions mediated by AR, and cross-talk with other key signaling networks.

Purpose

The design and format is to utilize methodologies from established researchers to provide an authoritative and diverse, yet accessible toolbox to study androgen/AR action.

Audience

The techniques are most applicable to biochemists, molecular and cellular biologists who are engaged in the study of androgen-mediated events. Written and edited by experts, in the field of androgen signaling, a basic knowledge of AR is useful.

Features

The salient aspects include two exquisite reviews that set the stage to understand androgen action from both a historical and cancer perspective. In addition, given the recent emphasis on low-androgen environments that promote disease progression two chapters have been dedicated to the use of sensitive methods to accurately quantify androgens and AR activity. Due to the importance of AR, a series of experimental procedures (in vitro and in vivo) are outlined that provide the necessary means to study AR: biology (chapters 5-10), modifications (chapters 11-14), and genome-wide (chapters 15-18). The book ends with a number of provocative methods (chapters 19 - 22) devoted to the assessment of cross-talk between androgens and other signaling networks relevant to prostate
cancer including: ETS fusion, apoptotic, and tyrosine kinase signaling.

Assessment

This effectively written and thought-out volume will serve as useful resource to decipher the complex actions of androgens. Moreover, its comprehensive methods and protocols may be adaptable to other steroid hormone nuclear receptor signaling pathways. In its hardcover, the compilation of knowledge and wisdom within this book will be
beneficial to current and future researchers.

Reviewer: Clay Comstock, PhD Kimmel Cancer Center Philadelphia, PA, USA

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© The Canadian Journal of Urology™; 19(6); December 2012