[Macroglobulin family proteins in breast cancer].

Determined serum levels of alpha-2-macroglobulin (a2-MG) and pregnancy-associate alpha-2-glycoprotein (a2-PAG) in 98 breast cancer patients stage I-IV prior to the special antitumor treatment. Statistically significant negative correlative dependence of the a2-PAG in the blood and lifetime of patients is proved. We believe that the definition of pre-treatment level of a serum a2-MG and a2-PAG concentrations for patients with breast cancer, can be used as an additional predictor of life expectancy.

[Various acute phase reactants in different types of proliferative diseases of the uterine appendages].

The authors examined serum in patients with ovarian cancer (OC; a disseminated process), ovarian cystadenoma (OCA), or external endometriosis (EM) before treatment and in apparently healthy females (a control) for the content of some acute-phase proteins and cytokines to clarify the specific features of changes in their concentrations in relation to the type of the proliferative process. It was shown that in OC, there were significant reductions in the levels of alpha2-macroglobulin (MG), plasmin (PL), alpha1-antitrypsin (AT) and statistically significantly increases in the content of lactoferrin (LF), interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, Ig, and the regulatory transport complex of P--M. In M, the concentrations of AT were lower and those of IL-6, IL-8, and PL-MG were higher (to a lesser degree than those in OC).

Pregnancy-Associated Plasma Protein-A, Alpha-2-Macroglobulin, Pregnancy Zone Protein and Their Complexes with IgG in Sera of Healthy Non-Pregnant and Pregnant Woman, and Patients with Breast Cancer.

The purpose of this study was to measure alpha-2-macroglobulin-IgG (alpha(2)-MG-IgG), pregnancy zone protein-IgG (PZP-IgG) and pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A-IgG (PAPP-A-IgG) complex concentrations in serum in comparison with total alpha(2)-MG, PZP and PAPP-A concentration, and to determine the possible role of such complexes. Serum samples were obtained from 20 healthy women, 30 patients with verified metastatic breast cancer (stage III-IV) before the treatment and 40 healthy women with normal pregnancy (I-III trimester in dynamics). The serum concentrations of alpha(2)-MG-IgG, PZP-IgG and PAPP-A-IgG complexes were measured by ELISA.