The Journal of steroid biochemistry and molecular biology

Cell fate specification is a critical process to generate cells with a wide range of characteristics from stem and progenitor cells. Emerging evidence demonstrates that the orphan nuclear receptor COUP-TFII serves as a key regulator in dete…

Endometriosis is an estrogen-dependent chronic inflammatory condition that affects women in their reproductive period. Alterations in ovarian follicle morphology and function have been documented in affected women. The local intrafollicular…

Demyelination in multiple sclerosis (MS) leads to significant, progressive axonal and neuronal degeneration. Currently existing immunosuppressive and immunomodulatory therapies alleviate MS symptoms and slow, but fail to prevent or reverse,…

Endometriosis is an estrogen-dependent disease that afflicts about 10% of women in their reproductive age, causing severe pain and infertility. The potential roles of female steroid hormones in modulating key estrogen-metabolizing enzymes, …

Estrogen sulfamate derivatives were the first irreversible active-site-directed inhibitors of steroid sulfatase (STS), an emerging drug target for endocrine therapy of hormone dependent diseases that catalyzes inter alia the hydrolysis of e…

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) accounts for about 90% of malignant ovarian tumors, and estrogen is often implicated in disease progression. We therefore compared the potential for gating of estrogen action via pre-receptor metabolism in no…

The steroid receptor coactivators (SRCs/p160/NCOA) are a family of three transcriptional coregulators initially discovered to transactivate the transcriptional potency of steroid hormone receptors. Even though SRCs were also found to modula…

The steroid receptor coactivators (SRCs/p160/NCOA) are a family of three transcriptional coregulators initially discovered to transactivate the transcriptional potency of steroid hormone receptors. Even though SRCs were also found to modula…

The active form of vitamin D3, calcitriol, plays a major role in maintaining calcium/phosphate homeostasis. In addition, it is a potent antiproliferative and prodifferentiating agent. However, when effective antitumor doses of calcitriol ar…

Dienogest (DNG) is a selective progesterone receptor (PR) agonist and oral administration of DNG is used for the treatment of endometriosis. DNG is considered to act on PR to down-regulate pathophysiological factors associated with endometr…

Endometrial cancer is clearly a hormonally responsive tumor, with a critical role played by estrogens unopposed by progestins. Numerous epidemiologic studies have shown substantial risk increases associated with use of unopposed estrogens, …

The human progesterone receptor (PR) plays a key role in reproductive function in women. PR antagonists have numerous applications in female health care including regular and emergency contraception, and treatment of hormone-related patholo…

Progesterone plays a key role in the development, differentiation and maintenance of female reproductive tissues and has multiple non-reproductive neural functions. Depending on the cell and tissue, the hormonal environment, growth conditio…

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Puerarin, a phytoestrogen with a weak estrogenic effect, binds to estrogen receptors, thereby competing with 17β-estradiol and producing an anti-estrogenic effect. In our early clinical practice to treat endometri…

After a worldwide breakdown of hormone therapy [HT] following the publications of the Women's Health Initiative trial and Million Women's Study in 2002-2003, there is now a trend to turn attention again to HT and to explore particular proge…

Endometriosis is a common estrogen-dependent gynecological disease. In patients with endometriosis estradiol can be synthesized locally in the endometriotic lesions from inactive precursors of adrenal or ovarian origin, via the aromatase pa…

The human aldo-keto reductase AKR1C2 converts 5α-dihydrotestosterone to the less active 3α-androstanediol and has a minor 20-ketosteroid reductase activity that metabolises progesterone to 20α-hydroxyprogesterone. AKR1C2 is expressed in dif…

17β-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases (17β-HSDs) are oxidoreductases, which play a key role in estrogen and androgen steroid metabolism by catalyzing final steps of the steroid biosynthesis. Up to now, 14 different subtypes have been identified…

Glucuronidation, catalyzed by UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGT) and sulfation, catalyzed by sulfotransferases (SULT), are pathways through which sex steroids are metabolized to less active compounds. These enzymes are highly polymorphic an…

Concerning temporal trends in human reproductive health has prompted concern about the role of environmentally mediated risk factors. The population is exposed to chemicals present in air, water, food and in a variety of consumer and person…

A fast and sensitive LC-MS/MS method for the quantitative analysis of seven steroid hormones in 150 μl of human serum was developed and validated. The following compounds were included: 17α-hydroxypregnenolone, 17α-hydroxyprogesterone, andr…

There is considerable interest in the development of an inhibitor of aldo-keto reductase (AKR) 1C3 (type 5 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase and prostaglandin F synthase) as a potential therapeutic for both hormone-dependent and hormone-inde…

In the search for novel biomarkers of endometriosis, we selected 152 genes from the GeneLogic database based on results of genome-wide expression analysis of ovarian endometriosis, plus 20 genes related to estrogen metabolism and action. We…

Estradiol (E2), estrogen receptor (ER), ER-coregulators have been implicated in the development and progression of breast cancer. In situ E2 synthesis is implicated in tumor cell proliferation through autocrine or paracrine mechanisms, espe…