Non-invasive localized deep microwave hyperthermia was applied as an alternative treatment to surgery in 29 patients with contraindications for prostatectomy. Patients were treated twice weekly, on Mondays and Thursdays, for 1 hour, without sedation on an outpatient basis. All patients tolerated treatment well without secondary effects. The results indicate that localized deep microwave hyperthermia applied by this method is safe and effective in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia.

The roles of androgen hypersecretion, in situ enzyme activity, and androgen receptors in androgenetic alopecia in women are still a matter of debate. We studied 187 women with alopecia, which we graded I, II, or III, according to Ludwig's classification, and 21 healthy control women. All participants were subjected to full basal and 1 h post-beta-1-24 corticotropin stimulation endocrine profiles. Abnormal hormone profiles were observed in 67% of the patients with alopecia alone (group A, n = 110) and in 84% of the patients with alopecia plus other symptoms of hyperandrogenism including acne, hirsutism, and menstrual cycle disturbances (group B, n = 77). Mean serum 5alpha-androstane-3alpha,17beta-diol glucuronide (3alpha-AdiolG) levels in all three patient groups (6.50+/-4.10, 8.90+/-5.80, and 14.70+/-8.90 nmol/l, respectively) correlated with the grade of alopecia (I-III) and were significantly higher than in the control group (4.80+/-2.05 nmol/l, P < 0.005). Mean serum sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) levels were inversely correlated with the grade of alopecia (I-III) and were significantly lower in all three patient groups (50.55+/-23.50, 40.00+/-17.65, and 38.80+/-14.10 nmol/l, respectively) than in the control group (61.15+/-17.65 nmol/l, P < 0.05). Mean serum levels of delta4-androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, and 3alpha-AdiolG were higher in group B than in group A, and higher in group A than in the control group. The significant correlations found between adrenal secretion - either positive (with 3alpha-AdiolG levels and the body mass index) or negative (with SHBG levels) - might reflect the important contribution of secretory and metabolic components in the development of alopecia, the severity of which has been shown to be very closely related to observed levels of two of these parameters (3alpha-AdiolG and SHBG).

No abstract

The growth and the differentiation of thyroid cells is known to be under the control of both cyclic AMP dependent and independent pathways. Taking into account these data, we studied the regulation of proliferation and the expression of differentiation using the human thyroid hybrid cells we cloned (Karsenty et al. 1985). This study was conducted using platelet aggregating factor\x=req-\ acether (PAF-acether) (Roubin et al. 1983), a phospholipid mediator which has been shown to stimulate the phosphoinositol cycle of porcine thyroid cells without promoting cAMP accumulation (Haye et al. 1984). Materials and Methods ReagentsHighly purified human TSH (hTSH) was supplied by the National Pituitary Agency (Baltimore, MO) and iodine labelled using the lactoperoxidase method.PAF-acether was a gift of Dr J. M. Mencia-Huerta. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) and insulin were purchased from Sigma (St. Louis, MO). GEJ cell culture and proliferation GEJ cells were maintained in complete culture medium: RPMI 1640 (Gibco, Paisley, Scotland), penicillin 100 U/ml, streptomycin 100 \g=m\g/ml and 10% heat inactivated foetal calf serum (FCS) in an atmosphere of 10% C02 in air. For proliferation, cells were seeded at 5 x 103 cells (in 0.2 ml complete medium with 5% FCS) in a 96 well microtest II Falcon tissue culture plate and PAF-acether added at the specified concentrations. Cells were counted at the required time with a hemocytometer. Binding assay of [125I]TSH to GEJ cells was per¬ formed as previously reported (Roubin et al. 1983). ResultsFive thousand GEJ cells were cultured with -7 M to 10-12 M PAF-acether in complete culture me¬ dium containing 5% FCS. On days 3, 5 and 7 viable cells were counted with a haemocytometer.As shown in Table 1, on day -t-3 of culture, an increase of approximately 60% in cell numbers was found with doses of PAF-acether varying from 10-9 to 10-11 M. This increase promiferative response of the GEJ cells induced by the PAFacether was still detected on day + 5 while it disappears on day + 7 of culture.In a second series of experiments, we investi¬ gated if PAF-acether, apart from its proliferative action, could influence the number of binding sites for TSH on GEJ cells. From preliminary experiments (data not shown), we determined that incubation of GEJ cells during 1 h with 10"X2 M PAF-acether increases of approximately 50 to 60% the numbers of binding sites for TSH, this effect being detectable but less intense after 30 min of incubation. Moreover, we demonstrated that similar amounts of BSA have no effect on the number of TSH-R on GEJ cells (Table 2). We also investigated if these PAF-acether induced binding sites were specific for TSH; for that purpose, GEJ