Measurement of urinary neopterin in normal pregnant and non-pregnant women and in women with benign and malignant genital tract neoplasms

Abstract

Urinary neopterin was measured in healthy women (n = 209) and men (n = 208), in patients with benign gynecological tumors (n = 53), in women with precancerous lesions of the cervix and the endometrium (n = 24) and in women with cancer of the genital tract (n = 108). In addition urinary neopterin measurements were made in 109 pregnant women and 20 women in the puerperium. No significant difference was found between mean neopterin values in patients with benign gynecological tumors, in women with precancerous lesions and in healthy women. Patients with cancer had significantly higher mean urinary neopterin levels than the control group. Raised neopterin levels were found in 56% of patients with genital tract cancer, the figures varying between 93% for ovarian cancer and 47% for cancer of the cervix. Some of the cancer patients had serial urinary neopterin measurements and in about 80% there was some relation between urinary neopterin values and clinical progress as judged clinically and radiologically, the best agreement existing in patients with ovarian cancer. Significantly higher mean neopterin values were found during normal pregnancy and in the early puerperium than in non-pregnant healthy controls. Raised urinary neopterin excretion may be due to enhanced cell proliferation and alloantigenic activation of T-lymphocytes.

The Value of Urinary Neopterin as an Immunological Parameter in Patients with Malignant Tumors of the Genitourinary Tract

“…Similar expe rience has already been reported in female patients with genital carcinoma [4], The low neopterin values in patients with carcinoma of the prostate with stage A-B indicate that there is no increased activity of the cellular immunity at this stage of the disease. As soon as the tumor grows beyond the pros tate an increased neopterin secretion could be found in more than 80% of these patients; a fact which obviously signals an enhanced activation of the T-lymphocyte-macrophage system [2], An altered biological activity of the tumor cells, size of the tumor and/or changed antigenicity of the tumor cells may also play an important role.…”

“…The broken line represents the upper confidence limit. eases [25], in patients suffering from gynecological [3,4], hematological [8][9][10] and some other malignant tumors [1,2,17,21,23]. Rejection of allograft is also strongly accompanied with increased neopterin secretion [19].…”

Urinary Neopterin Levels in the Different Stages of Pregnancy

“…In a study of 109 pregnant women by Bichler et al [24], urinary neopterin levels were found to be significantly higher than those of non-pregnant women. In another study of pregnant women by Fuith et al [22], serum interferon and urinary neopterin levels, which were considered as markers of cellular immune activation, were investigated and it was shown that neopterin values increased signifi cantly while interferon levels did not.…”

Neopterin as a Biochemical Marker in the Rejection Process of Heart Transplant Patients: A Preliminary Study at BUMC

“…Tetrahydrobiopterin is found to accumulate in the regeneration bud ofsome lower invertebrates and to disappear along with redifferentiation (8). Accumulation of tetrahydrobiopterin was reported in human squamous cell carcinoma (12) and changes in levels of biopterin or neopterin were found in whole blood and urine (13). These early observations gave rise to the notion that pteridine formation may be related to proliferative processes.…”