OVARIAN STEROID PRODUCTION IN A WOMAN WITH POLYCYSTIC OVARY SYNDROME ASSOCIATED WITH ENDOMETRIAL CANCER

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A young woman with typical polycystic ovary syndrome (PCO) underwent laparotomy for moderately differentiated endometrial cancer. Specimens from the hyper-plastic thecal and stromal tissue of the ovaries were incubated for 2 hours in the presence or absence of hCG, 100 IU/ml. Following incubation the tissue content of cyclic AMP and the amounts of progesterone (P), androstene-dione (A), testosterone (T) and estradiol-17β (E2) in the incubation medium were analysed. For comparison, thecal cells from normal ovaries of regularly menstruating women were incubated under identical conditions. In vivo, the PCO ovaries secreted several-fold greater amounts of T than normal ovaries. In vitro, the thecal cells were much more active, steroidogenically, than the stromal cells of the PCO ovary. Furthermore, the hyperplastic thecal cells of the PCO ovary produced several-fold greater amounts of an-drogens, and appeared more sensitive to stimulation with hCG, as compared with thecal cells from normal ovaries. The results indicate that in women with PCO associated with endometrial cancer the hyperplastic thecal cells are a significant site of abnormal androgen production and abnormal sensitivity to gonadotropin.

This publication has 14 references indexed in Scilit: