Multiple steroid hormone receptors in normal and abnormal human endometrium.

The cytoplasmic concentrations of ER, AR, PR, and GR were determined in 124 specimens of normal and abnormal endometrium and other uterine human tissues by the DCC technique. In the endometrial carcinoma group, we observed that pretreatment with MAP leads to low cellularity, higher amount of AR, lower amounts of detectable ER, GR, and PR: the last receptor was almost always absent. A positive correlation between ER presence and tumor grade of differentiation was found in endometrial tumors from hormone-untreated patients. With the value of 142 fmol/mg DNA as the cut off point between high and low binding capacity, the frequency of the single receptors within the hormone-untreated cancer group ranged from 61% to 88%; ER and PR were simultaneously present in 55% of cases (they are tightly correlated in the different biopsies with respect to frequency and amount); ER-AR-PR were present in 45% and all the four receptors in 40% of cases. Slightly higher values were found in normal endometrium collected from hormone-untreated patients.