Note: Hypoxia = a shortage of oxygen in the body/tissues
Ischemia = a restriction in blood supply (and therefore oxygen supply) to an organ or section of the body, generally due to constriction or blocking of blood vessels
The effects of androgen deprivation on the prostate gland: cell death mediated by vascular regression.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entre … t=Citation
Buttyan R, Ghafar MA, Shabsigh A.
The Department of Urology, The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA.
Androgenic steroids are required to maintain the prostate gland in the adult state. Consistent with this requirement, androgen deprivation therapies typically induce a drastic regression of mature prostate tissue that is accompanied by the extensive loss of prostate cells through the programmed cell death process referred to as apoptosis.
Whereas, in the past, the loss of prostate cells associated with androgen deprivation has generally been perceived to be a direct response of the androgen receptor-expressing prostate cells to an androgen-depleted environment, more recent studies of the prostate regression process suggest that it might instead be initiated by an indirect response of the prostatic parenchyma to an ischemic/hypoxic environment caused by a drastic reduction of blood flow to the tissue that occurs when androgens are withdrawn.
This article reviews evidence that the prostatic vascular system is a primary target of androgen action and other evidence suggesting that the regression of the prostate parenchyma occurs secondarily to the regression of the prostate vascular system through cell death mediated by tissue ischemia/hypoxia.