CAM is likely to be used by a wide variety of people. In our study, we found that about half of the children with cancer has used CAM in the 2 preceding months. No specific profile of CAM users emerged from this study. The high prevalence of CAM warrants further studies to better understand the reasons and consequences of CAM use particularly on quality of life.

Membrane preparations from endometria of rats in different physiological states (e.g. pseudopregnancy, ovariectomized animals receiving progesterone + oestradiol or oestradiol alone) were studied for [3H]PGF-2 alpha binding by methods which detected PGF-2 alpha binding in ovary preparations and PGE binding in the same endometrial preparations. There was no evidence of high-affinity binding sites for [3H]PGF-2 alpha. Saturable [3H]PGF-2 alpha binding that increased with the onset of uterine sensitivity was detected but this binding does not fulfil all the criteria required for a PGF-2 alpha receptor and is probably due to binding to PG metabolizing enzymes in our preparations, or to binding of [3H]PGF-2 alpha to PGE binding sites. The failure to detect specific PGF-2 alpha binding sites seems to reflect a true absence of these sites in the rat endometrium.

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A cytosolic oestrogen receptor from baboon endometria was detected and partially characterized. The apparent dissociation constant for oestradiol was 1.5 x 10(-10)--4 x 10(-10) mol/l. Steroids that competed with the [3H]oestradiol binding to the receptor were oestradiol and ethynyloestradiol greater than oestriol greater than oestrone; progesterone, testosterone and corticosterone were not competitors. The [3H]oestradiol-receptor complexes migrated as a 3-3.5S peak during sucrose density-gradient centrifugation when endometrial samples were taken during either the proliferative or the secretory phase. A 7S peak was observed for samples taken at the period of ovulation. A [3H]oestradiol exchange technique was used to detect changes in the receptor concentration during the menstrual cycle. This concentration which was high during the early follicular phase fell sharply before the ovulatory peak of ovarian oestrogens. It remained at a base level during the early secretory phase and then rose during the last days of the cycle to the same concentration as that measured at the beginning of the cycle.

The present paper describes studies conducted to detect and characterize the nuclear receptor for oestrogen in the baboon endometrium. Only 10% of the [3H]oestradiol nuclear receptor complexes were extracted with a 0.5 M-KCl solution. This solubilized receptor migrated as a 4.4S peak during 5-20% sucrose gradient centrifugation. The oestrogen receptor was not bound to oestrogen in the nuclei under normal physiological conditions. Using an unlabelled competitor addition technique with intact nuclei the variation in oestrogen-receptor concentration of baboon endometrium during the menstrual cycle was measured. This concentration increased slightly during the first week of the cycle, being maximal on day 7 before ovulation (2500 molecules/cell), then decreasing gradually, reaching the lowest level (300 molecules/cell) on day 5 after ovulation, where it remained until the end of the cycle.