title: ["Prostatic" kallikreins, sex hormones and insulin-like growth factors: complex of male and female regulatory elements in health and carcinogenesis].
abstract: Publications (up to the year 1997) on the interactions of "prostatic" kallikreins (prostatic specific antigen-PSA, etc.), sex hormones, insulin-like growth factors (IGF) and proteins binding them (IGFBP) in physiological processes (ageing, menstrual cycle, pregnancy) and oncogenesis (prostatic and mammary cancer) are reviewed. The concentrations of PSA, IGF, and IGFBP in organs and liquid media of men and women are presented. A concept of similarity in the mechanisms of interactions of sex hormones (dihydrotestosterone in men and progesterone in women), PSA, IGFBP, and IGF during activation of anabolic and proliferative processes in health and carcinogenesis is presented as a scheme. The diagnostic and prognostic value of PSA as a cancer marker should not be confined to male tumors (prostatic cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia). Our data permits us to regard PSA as an oncofetal marker for men and women, indicating normal and neoplastic proliferative processes in the prostatic, mammary, salivary, and other glands and in the lungs and endometrium. Diagnostic and prognostic significance of PSA in breast cancer is shown. The traditional name "PSA" does not reflect its physiological and pathogenetic role as a member of the kallikrein family with chymotrypsin-like activity. PSA is not absolutely specific towards the producer organ and sex. Its relative specificity for the prostate is undoubted, because the content of PSA in prostatic tissue and seminal plasma is 10(6)-10(8) times higher than in the serum and other organs of men and women. Therefore, although the terms "prostatic, "specific", and "antigen" now became trivial and it is difficult to refuse from them, they can be used only in quotation marks.
authors.forename: E G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Zezerov
authors.forename: E S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Severin
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000378:metabolism; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D002455:Cell Division; D005260:Female; D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008597:Menstrual Cycle / Q000378:metabolism; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000378:metabolism; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000378:metabolism*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D013002:Somatomedins / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones; D013002:Somatomedins; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen