[Effects of estrogen, progesterone and androgen on autoradiograms of the immature rat uterus].
Endometrial cancer is more frequent in patients at a postmenopausal age, when the ovarian secretion of androgens instead of estrogens seems to be relatively increased. In clinical or experimental medicine, progesterones are widely used for the treatment of endometrial cancer, probably because they have an antiestrogenic action and cause differentiation of cancer cells from the proliferative phase. The effects of testosterone(T), progesterone(P), and/or 17 beta-estradiol(E) on the incorporation of 3H-thymidine in autoradiograms were investigated in immature rats. The autoradiogram revealed many grains due to 3H-thymidine in the endometrial epithelium, stroma, and the myometrium in the immature rat 30 hours after E-injection. T alone markedly induced the DNA synthesis in the stroma and the myometrium, but not in the epithelium. T displayed a synergistic interaction with E in both the stroma and the myometrium with a slight increase in thymidine incorporation into the epithelium. P alone induced DNA synthesis in the stroma and the myometrium. Simultaneous injection of E and P also produced the same result as that when P alone was injected. P markedly inhibited DNA synthesis due to E in the epithelium. Autoradiograms of the immature rat uterus provide basic support for the rationality of P therapy for cancer or adenomatous hyperplasia of the endometrium.
D000728:Androgens / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D001345:Autoradiography; D004967:Estrogens / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D011374:Progesterone / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D014599:Uterus / Q000187:drug effects*
D000728:Androgens; D004967:Estrogens; D011374:Progesterone