Discovery of potential serum and urine-based microRNA as minimally-invasive biomarkers for breast and gynecological cancer.

Background: Deregulated microRNAs (miRNAs) in breast and gynecological cancer might contribute to improve early detection of female malignancies.

Objective: Specification of miRNA types in serum and urine as minimally-invasive biomarkers for breast (BC), endometrial (EC) and ovarian cancer (OC).

Methods: In a discovery phase, serum and urine samples from 17 BC, five EC and five OC patients vs.

In vitro-assessment of putative antiprogestin activities of phytochemicals and synthetic UV absorbers in human endometrial Ishikawa cells.

Critical steps of embryo implantation are controlled by progesterone. These processes can be interrupted by progesterone receptor (PR) antagonists, e.g.

Nitric oxide detection by DAF (diaminofluorescein) fluorescence in human myometrial tissue.

Nitric oxide (NO) is considered to be involved in the modulation of uterine contractility. In the present pilot study, the direct detection of intracellular NO in pregnant human myometrial tissues has been investigated by using the fluorescent indicator 4,5-diaminofluorescein-2 diacetate (DAF-2DA). Pregnant myometrial tissue samples were obtained during Cesarean sections between week 34 and 40 of gestation before the onset of labor.

Evaluation of different strategies for real-time RT-PCR expression analysis of corticotropin-releasing hormone and related proteins in human gestational tissues.

In this article real-time quantitative RT-PCR strategies for investigation of mRNA distribution in stress-related corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), CRH-binding protein (CRH-BP), and CRH receptors (CRH-R1, CRH-R2) in human gestational tissues are described. The effect of sample and RNA preparation, reverse transcription, and the quantitation strategy were investigated. Both thawing of the sample before homogenization and the RT reaction were identified as critical steps.