[Adrenal myelolipoma]. / Myelolipoma nadnerczy.

This paper is a review of the literature about adrenal myelolipoma. It is a rare, benign, hormonally inactive tumor of the adrenal gland composed of mature fat tissue and hematopoietic tissue in varying amounts. Adrenal myelolipoma is usually small (< 4 cm), unilateral and causes no clinical disorders. The age range of the affected patients is 20-90 years; most are men in their fourth to sixth decade. This tumour is discovered during autopsy or USG, CT MRI of the abdomen usually by chance and because of that is included in the group of tumors called incidentaloma. Etiology of myelolipoma is unclear. It is usually hormonally inactive but there were several cases in which adrenal myelolipoma coexisted with various endocrine disorders such as Cushing's syndrome, Conn's syndrome, Addison's disease, hirsutism, hermaphroditism, inborn deficiencies of 17- and 21-hydroxylase. It is also more frequent in patients with obesity, hypertension and leading stressful life. Surgical treatment is called for when the diameter of tumor reaches more than 4 cm, tumour shows tendency to fast growth or causes clinical disorders. In cases of small lesions, that show no progression, it is advised to observe the tumor using imaging techniques.

Effect of vitamin E and human placenta cysteine peptidase inhibitor on expression of cathepsins B and L in implanted hepatoma Morris 5123 tumor model in Wistar rats.

AIM: To examine the effectiveness of human placental inhibitors, by injecting vitamin E to rats with transplanted Morris-5123 hepatoma, on the expression of cathepsins B and L in tumor, liver, lung and blood sera after transplantation of Morris 5123 hepatoma. METHODS: Animals were divided into 10 groups receiving three different concentrations of vitamin E and inhibitors along or in combination and compared with negative control (healthy rats) and positive control (tumor rats). Effectiveness of treatment was evaluated with regard to survival time, tumor response and determination of the activities of proteolytic enzymes and their inhibitors using flurogenic substrates. RESULTS: Cathepsins B and L activities were elevated by 16-fold in comparison with negative control tissues, and their endogenous inhibitor activity decreased by 1.2-fold before treatment. In several cases, tumors completely disappeared following vitamin E plus human placental cyteine protease inhibitor (CPI) compared with controls. The number of complete tumor responses was higher when 20 m/kg vitamin E plus 400 microg of CPI was used, i.e. 7/10 rats survived more than two mo. Cathepsins B and L were expressed significantly in tumor, liver, lung tissues and sera in parallel to the increasing of the endogenous inhibitor activity compared with the controls after treatment (P<0.0001). CONCLUSION: The data indicate formation of metastasis significantly reduced in treated rats, which might provide a therapeutic basis for anti-cancer therapy.