Acta obstetrica et gynaecologica Japonica最新文献

Uterine Peroxidase (UP) can be induced by the administration of estradiol (E2) in the rat. We studied whether this biochemical parameter can be a specific marker of estrogen-dependence of rat uterus. 1. UP content in both immature castrated mature rat uteri was negligible. Whereas UP could be detected after vaginal openning of intact rats. 2. UP induction by E2 administration was first detected at 15-day-old rat uteri. 3. UP induction by E2 or mare serum gonadotropin was detected in both immature and castrated mature rats with the increase of uterine weight. 4. UP induction by E2 was observed only in estrogen-dependent tissues, such as uterus and vagina. 5. UP induction by E2 was prominently suppressed by the treatment with actinomycin-D, cycloheximide and tamoxifen. These results suggest that UP induction by E2 is an useful specific marker when hormone-dependence of rat uterus is investigated.

To elucidate the mechanism of trophoblastic invasion, further electron microscopic observation of human implantation sites, described in a preliminary paper, were performed. The cytotrophoblast cells invaded decidual tissue have taken in many cells and absorbed many materials. In this paper, the authors specifically report the phagocytotic function of the cytotrophoblast cell. It was clarified by criteria, described in preliminary papers, for judgement of cells composing the feto-maternal junctional zone that almost all cells phagocytized by the cytotrophoblast cells were decidual cells which showed significant ultrastructural changes in various degrees; some cells still had intrinsic features by which the cells could be clearly identified as decidual cell, and some cells were considered as a strongly altered degenerated decidual cells. Moreover, even though these phagocytized cells had not so many lysosome that these cells can autolysis, the cytotrophoblast cells had many lysosome having strong activity of acid phosphatase. After the cytotrophoblast cells contact decidual cells by means of many patterns, the cytotrophoblast cells can phagocytized the inactivated cell and can intracytoplasmically digest the cell actively.

Concentrations of progesterone (P), 20 alpha-dihydroprogesterone (20P), 17-hydroxyprogesterone (17P), androstenedione (A), estrone (E1) estradiol (E2) in endometrium and peripheral blood taken simultaneously from normally menstruating women in the course of hysterectomy were determined by radioimmunological assay. The mean concentration of P in the endometrium in the follicular phase was significantly lower than that in the luteal phase, whereas the mean E2 content in the follicular phase was significantly higher than that of the luteal phase. Six steroids examined were divided into 3 groups according to the ratio of the concentrations in the endometrium vs. plasma. The E2 and E1 groups were of high ratios and 17P and A groups were low ratios in both the follicular and the luteal phase. The concentrations of P and 20P in the endometrium vs. plasma in the luteal phase were correlated well. The results suggest that the steroid concentrations in the endometrium were related to the steroid receptors, steroid metabolisms and plasma steroid concentrations. Thus simultaneous determination of steroid hormone contents in plasma and endometrium seems to provide useful information concerning the functional abnormalities of endometrium.

For detecting the sperm immobilizing antibody in the sera of infertile women with unknown cause, Isojima's sperm immobilization test was widely used, but there was great difference on the percentage of positive results among several laboratories. For analysis of factors influencing the sensitivity of the test, source and amount of complement were studied, and the following results were obtained. 1. Guinea pig serum which contained more than 200 CH50 as hemolytic titer was best for this test. 2. Rat and rabbit sera which contained much lower CH50 than guinea pig indicated relatively good sensitivity for the test. 3. Human serum which contained 34.9 CH50/ml and mouse serum which contained less than 5 CH50/ml, both could not work on sperm immobilization test. The human serum (AB) which was concentrated to the level of guinea pigs serum as CH50 did not work well on sperm immobilization test as guinea pig serum. 4. When the complement from same source was used, the positive correlation between CH50 (hemolytic titer) and 50% sperm immobilization titer (SI50) was present, but if the complement source was different, there was no correlation between CH50 and SI50. 5. It was proved that more than 10 CH50 of guinea pig serum was necessary for sperm immobilization test to obtain the most sensitive results.

Forty-six female Sprague-Dawley rats were used. Twelve days after mating, all the fetuses were removed and fetal membrane with yolk sac were left outside of the uterus following the method reported by Sorbis and Vandeputte (1974). About the half of the rats were ovariectomized at the laparotomy. The rats were killed at 20 and 40 weeks after treatment and examined. No difference was observed in tumor incidence between fetectomy alone and fetectomy plus ovariectomy at both 20 and 40 weeks and it was about 70%. The size of tumor varied from 2 to 35 mm in diameter. The size of tumors tended to be greater in fetectomy plus ovariectomy compared with fetectomy alone at 20 weeks, but no significant difference was observed at 40 weeks between the two groups. Histologically the tumors were characterized by the presence of a variety of differentiated tissues. Metastases to the visceral part were detected in 2 rats of fetectomy alone and the tumors were diagnosed as yolk sac tumor. These results indicate that sex steroids might influence the teratocarcinogenesis.

Ontogenesis of hPL binding factor and its regulatory mechanism were investigated in rat liver cell membranes. The results were as follows: 1) Binding of hPL was very low in liver cell membranes from fetal and immature rats. It began to increase after 28 days of age. It increased over control level at mid-pregnancy (L12), reaching more than 300--400% of control level in late pregnancy. It decreased immediately to control level within 24hrs. after parturition. 2) Among the rats treated with estradiol-17 beta, those with progesterone, or those with hydrocortisone, the binding showed a dose-dependent increase in the rats treated with estradiol but no significant change in the others. Combined administration of estradiol and dexamethasone suppressed the binding increased by estradiol completely. 3) The binding was not be able to detected 7 days after hypophysectomy in rats. hPL treatment with PVP (polyvinylpyrrolidone) could restore them. On the other hand, estradiol-17 beta treatment failed to restore. 4) Estradiol-17 beta, progesterone, corticosterone, rPRL, and rCM (rat chorionic mammotropin) were measured in rats in pregnancy. The level of rCM elevated with two peaks at mid-pregnancy and at near term. The other hormones were not changed. In conclusion, hPL binding factor (hPL receptor) in rat liver cell membrane have an intimate relation with maturity and pregnancy. The receptor or its function may be induced by hPL itself and estrogen, but suppressed by glucocorticoid.

The ability of amine production of argyrophil cell adenocarcinoma of the endometrium was studied by wet-histofluorescence method. The intense green and yellow fluorescence was detected for the first time in the cytoplasm of a few tumor cells by injecting amine precursor (L-Dopa) 3mg intraperitoneally to nude mice, who were transplanted serially with argyrophil cell adenocarcinoma of the endometrium. Similar fluorescence was also located in a few epithelial cells of the small intestine prepared from the same nude mice. These findings strongly suggested that these fluorescent products were amines. In order to specify the sorts of amines, the microspectrophotometric analyses are now in progress.