The relationship between matrix Gla protein gene polymorphism, serum osteocalcin levels and bone mineral density in postmenopausal Korean women / 대한산부인과학회지

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between the matrix Gla protein (MGP) gene polymorphism, serum osteocalcin levels and bone mineral density (BMD) in postmenopausal Korean women. METHODS: The MGP gene cytosine-adenine (CA) polymorphism was analyzed by polyacrylamide-urea gel eletrophoresis, genescan and DNA sequencing in 267 postmenopausal Korean women. Serum osteocalcin, bone alkaline phosphatase (BAP), and CrossLaps (CTX) were measured by immunoassay, and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay respectively. BMD at the lumbar spine and proximal femur was determined by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. RESULTS: Six MGP alleles were observed with product sizes ranging between 204-214 bp, and their distributions were as follows: 210 bp 57.5%, 221 bp 27.9%, 206 bp 13.3% etc. There were no significant differences in BMD of the lumbar spine and proximal femur across the MGP genotypes. No significant differences in the distribution of MGP genotypes among normal, osteopenic, and osteoporotic postmenopausal women were observed. Serum osteocalcin level was significantly higher in women who did not 210 bp MGP (CA) allele than in women carrying at least one copy of this allele, while no significant differences in serum BAP and CTX levels were noted among MGP genotypes. CONCLUSION: The MGP gene (CA) polymorphism does not affect BMD but serum osteocalcin levels in postmenopausal Korean women.

The relationship between calcitonin receptor gene AluI polymorphism, bone mineral density and bone responsiveness to hormone replacement therapy in postmenopausal Korean women / 대한산부인과학회지

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship between the calcitonin receptor (CTR) gene AluI polymorphism, serum calcitonin levels, bone mineral density (BMD) and bone responsiveness to hormone replacement therapy (HRT). METHODS: The CTR AluI polymorphism were determined by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) in 433 postmenopausal Korean women. Among these women, 306 women received sequential HRT for 1 year. Serum bone alkaline phosphatase, CrossLaps, osteocalcin and calcitonin levels were measured by immunoassay and BMD at the lumbar spine and proximal femur by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry before and after HRT of 1 year. RESULTS: The CTR genotype frequencies were 81.3% for CC, 17.5% for CT, and 1.2% for TT. No significant differences in BMD at the lumbar spine and proximal femur and their annual percentage changes after HRT were noted among CTR genotypes. There were no significant differences in the levels of calcitonin or bone turnover markers and their 6 month percentage changes after HRT among CTR genotypes. The CTR genotypes were not distributed differently between HRT-responders and HRT-nonresponders (women who lose more than 3% of bone mass per year) or between women with normal BMD and women with low bone mass. CONCLUSION: The CTR AluI polymorphism is not associated with BMD and bone responsiveness to HRT in Korean women.

Effects of Insulin-like Growth Factor in Peritoneal Fluid of Patients with Endometriosis on the Proliferation of Endometrial Stromal Cells / 대한불임학회지

The purposes of this study were to evaluate the effects of insulin-like growth factor (IGF)s in peritoneal fluid (PF) from patients with and without endometriosis on the proliferation of endometrial stromal cells and to investigate the effects of type I IGF receptor antibody on the response of endometrial stromal cells to PF from patients with endometriosis. IGFs in PF from patients with endometriosis (n=14) and without endometriosis (n=10) were measured by immunoradiometric assay and PF samples were divided into low IGF-I PF group (less than 85 ng/ml) and high IGF-I PF group (more than 85 ng/ml). Endometrial stromal cells from patients without endometriosis were cultured in serum free media in the presence or absence of 1% PF and thymidine incorporation test were used to evaluate the proliferation of endometrial stromal cells. Also cultures were incubated with type I IGF receptor monoclonal antibody (alpha IR3) before adding PF. PF from patients with endometriosis and without endometriosis increased thymidine incorporation in endometrial stromal cells. In patients with endometriosis, high IGF-I PF group had high IGF-II levels and resulted in higher thymidine incorporation than low IGF-I PE and low IGF-I PF group was noted in patients without endometriosis. There was not a significant correlation between increase in thymidine incorporation and IGF-I levels in PF from patients without endometriosis but in PF from patients with endometriosis. Preincubation with alphaIR3 significantly inhibited the mitogenic response of endometrial stromal cells to PF. Our data indicate that IGF-I in PF may be involved in the growth of ectopic endometrium in patients with endometriosis.

Determination of Circulating Antiendometrial Antibodies in Patients with Endometriosis by Western Blot and Enzyme - linked Immunosorbent Assay / 대한산부인과학회잡지

OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether endometrial proteins with molecular weight(MW) of 92 kilodalton(kDa) may be a specific antigen involved in autoimmunity in endometriosis and to evaluate the efficacy of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) in determining antiendometrial antibodies, compared with Western blot. METHODS: Sera of forty-eight patients with endometriosis, 21 patients with normal control patients, 7 patients with Mayer-Rokitansky-Kustner-Hauser(MRKH) syndrome and cord sera of 22 male neonates(experimental controls) were tested for the presence of antibodies against endometrial proteins by Western blot and ELISA. All statistics were performed by Fishers exact teast and Student's t-test. RESULTS: Fourteen(29.1%), 18.8%, and 33.3% of sera from patients with endometriosis had immunoglobulin (IgG) antibodies that were reactive against endometrial proteins of MW of 71, 92, 103 kDa while any sera from experimental controls did not show any reactivity against these antigens. Overall, threr were specific IgG antiendometrial antibodies detectable by Western blot in 56.3% of patients with endometriosis and in a normal eontrol patient. The binding activities of serum IgG to endometrial proteins were higher in patients with endometriosis than other groups. Circulating IgG antiendometrial antibodies were detected by ELISA in 54.3% of 35 patients with endometriosis and in 2 normal control patients. The concordance rate between ELISA and Western blot in determining the presence of antiendometrial antibodies was 78.3%. CONCLUSIONS: Ninety-two kDa endometrial protein is a specific antigen eliciting IgG responses in endometriosis. ELISA may be an useful method in screening autoimmune endometriosis.

The relationship between serum insulin - like growth factor binding proteins profiles and bone mineral density in women without ovarian function / 대한산부인과학회잡지

The insulin-like growth factor(IGF)s are believed to play an important role in the maintenance of bone mass. The IGFs are found complexed with high affinity to a family of IGF-binding protein(IGFBP)s in the circulation. It is known that IGFBPs are involved in the transport of IGFs to tissues and modulate IGFs actions at local tissue The purposes of this study were to compare serum IGFBPs profiles in natural menopausal women with and without osteoporosis and in osteoporotic and nonosteoporotic women with premature menopause and to evaluate the relationship between serum IGFBPs profiles and bone mineral density(BMD) in women without ovarian function. Serum IGFBPs were measured by western ligand blot and immunoradiometric assay. The relative levels and proportions of serum IGFBP-2 measured by western ligand blot in natural menopausal women with osteoporosis(n=20) significantly increased compared to nonosteoporotic women(n= 20), whereas relative levels of serum IGFBP-3 in natural menopausal women with osteoporosis decreased. No significant differences in the relative levels of serum IGFBPs between osteoporotic(n=8) and nonosteoporotic women(n=10) with premature menopause were noted. The IGFBP-3 levels determined by immunoradiometric assay in women without ovarian function(n= 69) showed a similiar trend. The relative proportions of serum IGFBP-2 in osteoporotic women without ovarian function were signifcantly higher than those in nonosteoporotic women whereas relative levels of serum IGFBP-3 in osteoporotic women with natural menopause decreased. The relative levels and proportions of serum IGFBP-2 in women without ovarian function correlated negatively with BMD of lumbar spine, trochanter and Ward's triangle but there were significant positive correlations between levels and relative proportions of serum IGFBP-3 and BMD of above sites. No significant correlations between relative levels and proportions of serum IGFBP-1, IGFBP-2 and BMD were noted. Our data indicate that serum IGFBP profiles might be useful in identifying women without ovarian funcion at risk for osteoporosis,