Endocrine Abstracts

FSH receptor (FSHR) expression has been shown in gonadal tumours, as well as in endothelial tumour vessel cells of various cancers. FSHR, due to its transmembrane localization could be a good candidate for receptor-mediated targeted cancer therapy. In recent years, a number of membrane disrupting lytic peptides have been used for receptor-based cancer therapy. In the present study, we characterised the specificity and cytotoxicity of a lytic peptide Phor21 conjugated to three ...

Progesterone (P4) treatment has been shown to have a clear modulating effect on murine Leydig tumor cell (mLTC-1) function, including downregulation of luteinizing hormone receptor. We hypothesized that P4 would stimulate, whereas an antiprogestine mifepristone (MF) block tumor progression in vivo in a transgenic (TG) murine Leydig cell tumor model (inhibin-α promoter-driven SV40 T-antigen (inhα/Tag)) and act similarly on cell proliferation in vitro...

Antiprogestine mifepristone (MF) has been shown to inhibit ovarian epithelial cancer (OEC) cell growth in vitro and in vivo. Recent clinical trials with MF for human OEC were unsuccessful, for unknown reasons. Progesterone (P4) is believed to have preventive measures towards breast, endometrial or hOEC cancers. Hereby we analyzed the effects of P4 and MF on ovarian granulosa cell tumorigenesis (GCT) in vitro and in vivo...

Expression of the follicle-stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR) has been shown in gonads, gonadal tumors, and in endothelial tumor vessel cells of various cancers. We investigated the specificity and cytotoxicity of a fusion lytic peptide Phor21, conjugated to different FSHβ-chain fragments to ablate FSHR expressing cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Cytotoxicity of 12 different Phor21-FSHβ conjugates was tested in HEK-293 cells, stably transfected w...

The role of luteinizing hormone (LH) and its receptor (LHCGR) signaling in the adrenal gland remains unknown. Gonadectomy-induced chronically elevated LH levels trigger neoplastic transformation in genetically susceptible mouse strains (DBA/2J) or transgenic mice expressing the Simian Virus 40 T antigen (SV40Tag) oncogene under inhibin-α promoter (inhα/Tag). In order to study the functional role of LHR and GATA4 in the onset and progression of adrenocortical tumors i...