Prostate gland development, growth, function and pathology are strongly influenced by steroid hormones. Androgens greatly influence the prostate, but the physiological maintenance of the gland can also depend on the presence of estrogens and other steroid hormones, retinoids and vitamin D (1 ). Steroid hormones transduce their biological effects via specific receptors that act as transcription factors. The androgen ligand-receptor complex, working as part of a transcription-activating complex, regulates the expression of a large subset of genes, including oncogenes (myc) (2 ), growth factors (TGF-α, TGF-β, and EGF) (3 ,4 ) and their receptors (EGF receptor) (3 ), apoptosis controlling genes (bcl-2) (5 ), and other genes including those coding for proteases (prostate specific antigen) (6 ) and cell-cell adhesion molecules (E-cadherin) (7 ).
