94 research outputs found
Prolactin receptor does not correlate with oestrogen and progesterone receptors in primary breast cancer and lacks prognostic significance. Ten year results of the Naples adjuvant (GUN) study.
The correlation between prolactin (PRLR) and oestrogen (ER) or progesterone receptors (PgR) in breast cancer and a possible prognostic significance of PRLR at 10 year follow-up have been investigated in the Naples (GUN) adjuvant trial. A total of 308 pre- and post-menopausal patients with early breast cancer, who entered the trial from 1 February 1978 to 31 December 1983, received randomly Tamoxifen (TM), 30 mg per die for 2 years, or no therapy. PRLR status was known in 229 (74.3%) patients. Values of specific binding less than 1% were considered negative. PRLR was positive in 75/229 (32.8%). ER was assayed in 210/229 (91.7%) patients and PgR in 188/229 (82.1%). No significant correlation, by the Spearman test, was found between PRLR and ER or PgR, while ER status was highly interrelated with PgR status. By the Cox model no evidence of an independent prognostic role of PRLR on disease-free survival (DFS) was observed, nor an interaction between PRLR and adjuvant treatment with TM was found
Inhibition of the increased 17ß-estradiol-induced mast cell number by melatonin in the testis of the frog Rana esculenta, in vivo and in vitro
In the present study, we have utilized 17beta-estradiol to
induce the increase of mast cell number in order to verify
the melatonin effect on mast cell accumulation in the frog
testicular interstitium. Data obtained from in vivo
experiments confirm that 17beta-estradiol increases the mast
cell number and indicate a melatonin-inhibitory role in
their accumulation in the frog testis. In addition,
melatonin interferes with the effects of estradiol on the
increase of mast cell number in short-term cultured testes,
and this result has also been obtained in a dose–response
experiment at physiological concentration. The data
suggest that melatonin acts on mast cell number directly
via its local action in the frog gonads. In conclusion, our
study shows, for the first time, that melatonin may
interfere, probably via estrogen receptors, with the
differentiation and/or proliferation of mast cells induced
by estradiol treatment either in vivo or in vitro in the testis
of the frog Rana esculenta
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