Serum levels of sex steroids and metabolites following 12 weeks of intravaginal 0.50% DHEA administration.

The objective of the present phase III, placebo-controlled, double-blind, prospective and randomized study was to confirm the efficacy of daily intravaginal administration of 0.50% dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA; prasterone) ovules for 12 weeks on moderate to severe dyspareunia (or pain at sexual activity) as most bothersome symptom of vulvovaginal atrophy (VVA) while having serum steroid concentrations within normal postmenopausal values. To this end, serum levels of DHEA, DHEA-sulfate (DHEA-S), Androst-5-ene-diol-3β, 17β-diol (5-diol), testosterone, dihydrotestosterone (DHT), androstenedione (4-dione), estrone (E1), estradiol (E2), estrone sulfate (E1-S), androsterone glucuronide (ADT-G), and androstane-3α, 17β-diol 17-glucuronide (3α-diol-17G) were measured by validated liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS).

Identification of potent CNS-penetrant thiazolidinones as novel CGRP receptor antagonists.

Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) has been implicated in acute migraine pathogenesis. In an effort to identify novel CGRP receptor antagonists for the treatment of migraine, we have discovered thiazolidinone 49, a potent (Ki=30 pM, IC50=1 nM), orally bioavailable, CNS-penetrant CGRP antagonist with good pharmacokinetic properties.

[From crisis to impasse in the psychoanalytical cure].

The question of impasse in the treatment and strategies utilized and solutions offered by the clinician to resolve them brings us to take an analytical look at factors that constitute critical situations encountered in the clinical setting. What appears crucial is first the necessity to distinguish moments of crisis from moments of impasse. Often, the demand for analysis is based on a moment of crisis in one person's life, a repetitive and prolonged crisis that the person was unable to solve with the usual means of friendly help and awareness or again with other therapeutics available.

Epidermis promotes dermal fibrosis: role in the pathogenesis of hypertrophic scars.

Hypertrophic scarring is a pathological process characterized by fibroblastic hyperproliferation and by excessive deposition of extracellular matrix components. It has been hypothesized that abnormalities in epidermal-dermal crosstalk explain this pathology. To test this hypothesis, a tissue-engineered model of self-assembled reconstructed skin was used in this study to mimic interactions between dermal and epidermal cells in normal or pathological skin.