Chronic treatment with 17beta-estradiol increases susceptibility of smooth muscle cells to nitric oxide.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of estrogen as a vasodilator or relaxing modulator during vascular tonus through chronic estrogen treatment. Experiments were conducted using isolated basilar arteries from ovariectomized female rabbits divided into two groups (the with and without estrogen replacement groups, respectively). Both acetylcholine and carbachol relaxed the basilar arteries of rabbits in the with estrogen replacement group (pre-contracted by 30 mM K(+)) more strongly than in the without estrogen replacement group.

[Bone metabolism in hypo-estrogenic young women].

Hypo-estrogenic state induces the increased bone turnover finally into osteoporosis. Most typical case of hypo-estrogenic bone metabolism is that of postmenopausal women. We pay attention to other bone metabolism in hypo-estrogenic state women; (1) Amenorrhea patients in young women; (2) Oophorectomized young women; (3) Patients on GnRH analogue therapy.

Hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer risk in Kyushu University Hospital: supporting the Women's Health Initiative study.

Aim: The influence of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on breast cancer has not been clarified in Japan, however the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) trial recently showed breast cancer risk according to use of estrogen plus progestin. We assessed retrospectively the incidence of breast cancer in postmenopausal women who received HRT at our outpatients clinic.

Methods: Among the patients registered at the postmenopausal clinic in Kyushu University Hospital from 1990 to 2003, 917 women who received HRT (estrogen plus progestin, 507 patients; estrogen only, 410 patients) after informed consent were examined by mammography or breast ultrasound tomography.