5-Alpha Reductase Regulation by DNA Methylation

[SoccerGuy]

I never noticed it before, and clearly I’m not qualified to determine if it has any significance. Now with PFS I’ve screened over every inch of my body. Honestly I don’t pay any attention to it, but I’m curious if anyone with PFS had a questionable mass removed from their bodies. Mine is left side too.

[vincentv]

So when did you find it?

Did you have an ultrasound?

Do you think your would have noticed it sometime in your life? Do you have a varicocelle?

[SoccerGuy]

Nah never had an ultrasound completed. My balls used to be full. But now they are droopy so it’s easy to feel through the skin.

[RecentQuitter]

So I emailed this to Dr. Melcangi to see what he thought of this possible approach and he wrote back:

I think that epigenetic alterations of the enzymes could be a possibility. Indeed, in our project we are evaluating that on type 1. However, please note that occurring in periphery is probably different from nervous system. I say that because I think that one problem could be in nervous system. Thus it is difficult to translate possible approach from oncology or periphery to nervous system. Anyway, at this stage everything is possible as well as multiple hypotheses.

@Dubya_B

Not promoting this as a remedy, but:

In addition, we found that methylation of the SRD5A2 promoter and concomitant decrease in protein expression were closely associated with patient’s increasing age (P<0.05). Finally, in murine prostate tissues, cytokine levels, DNMT1 and global methylation were all increased in older mice. Induction of inflammation with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulated the TNFR1/NF-κB/IL-6/DNMT1 pathway, leading to hypermethylation of the SRD5A2 promoter and silencing of SRD5A2, while treatment with both LPS and TNF-alpha inhibitor reversed this pathway and reactivated SRD5A2.

[SoccerGuy]

Good for you for emailing him. That is fantastic

[bens]

I do have a varicocele. It’s on the left side as it is in most men. In my case it’s clearly a symptom of pelvic tension. This is nothing new or surprising. The blood vessels to and from the left testicle follow a much different path than the ones to and from the right and are much more susceptible to compression (which causes an upstream pressure build up and expansion) by the pelvic floor. These varicoceles are also linked to low T and testicular shrinkage as they coincide with blood flow problems.