the liver is involved in the synthesis and metabolism of many kinds of hormones, various abnormalities hormone levels are found in advanced liver disease. for example the liver is, extremely sensitive to changes in insulin or glucagon levels. the liver is the primary organ of iron storage is frequently involved, diabetes is common in patients with iron overload and may be seen in cirrhosis. chr...

The androgen receptor is a member of the family of nuclear receptors. In its activated form as an androgen receptor ligand complex (the ligand can either be testosterone or 5a-dihydrotestosterone), the androgen receptor is able to regulate a specific expression of target genes. The androgen receptor is expressed at high levels in male reproductive tissues. Mutations in the androgen receptor gen...

The current understanding of the response of androgen receptor to pharmacologic inhibitors in prostate cancer is derived primarily from serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. In this study, we test whether a novel androgen receptor-specific molecular imaging system is able to detect the action of the antiandrogen flutamide on androgen receptor function in xenograft models of prostate can...

Smoking represents the most widespread substance dependence in the world. Nicotine alters women hormonal homeostasis. Women smokers have higher testosterone and lower estradiol levels throughout life compared to nonsmokers. We monitored the effect of smoking discontinuation on steroid spectrum with 25 postmenopausal women smokers. They had been examined before discontinuation of smoking and aft...

The expression of gangliosides is often associated with cancer progression. Sialyltransferases have received much attention in terms of their relationship with cancer because they modulate the expression of gangliosides. We previously demonstrated that GD1a production was high in castration-resistant prostate cancer cell lines, PC3 and DU145, mainly due to their high expression of β-galactoside...

Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), initially via surgical orchiectomy and more contemporarily with medical castration through the use of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) agonists, has been the mainstay of treatment for advanced prostate cancer for more than 60 years (Huggins and Hodges, 1941). Though initially effective in decreasing serum PSA, lessening pain from bone metastases, ...

The role of tissue interaction in the development of hormone responsiveness was studied in the embryonic mammary gland of the mouse, which becomes sensitive to testosterone on day 14. Previously, the mesenchyme had been identified as the sole target tissue for the hormone, although it was also demonstrated that its response to testosterone required the presence of mammary epithelium. Using auto...

Androgen receptor (AR) plays a central role in prostate cancer, and most patients respond to androgen deprivation therapies, but they invariably relapse with a more aggressive prostate cancer that has been termed hormone refractory or androgen independent. To identify proteins that mediate this tumor progression, gene expression in 33 androgen-independent prostate cancer bone marrow metastases ...

BACKGROUND Adrenal androgens play an important role in the development of castration-resistant prostate cancer therapeutics. The effect of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonists on adrenal androgens has not been studied sufficiently. We measured testicular and adrenal androgen levels in patients treated with a GnRH antagonist. METHODS This study included 47 patients with histologic...

OBJECTIVE To determine the role of adrenal androgenic hormone precursors in female sexual function. DESIGN A review of current literature on sexual function and the androgen precursor hormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS). RESULT(S) The C(19) steroid DHEA is both an ovarian and adrenal androgen precursor hormone, whereas DHEAS is only synthesized i...