Allopregnanolone alters the gene expression profile of human glioblastoma cells. Allopregnanolone alters the gene expression profile of human glioblastoma cells

Glioblastomas (GBM) are one of the most frequent and aggressive brain tumors. In these malignancies, progesterone (P4) promotes proliferation, migration, and invasion. The P4 metabolite allopregnanolone (3α-THP) similarly promotes cell proliferation in the U87 human GBM cell line. Here, we evaluated global changes in gene expression of U87 cells treated with 3α-THP, P4, and the 5α-reductase inhibitor, finasteride (F). Overall design: Human glioblastoma U87 cell line (purchased from ATCC) was treated with 3α-THP (10 nM), P4 (10 nM), F (100 nM) or vehicle (V, 0.1 %DMSO) during 72 h. Three independent experiments were performed. Total RNA was extracted and prepared for the samples hybridization with GeneChip Human Gene 1.0 ST arrays (Affymetrix microarrays).