Most current references recommend divided doses of prednisolone for the initial treatment of idiopathic minimal change nephrotic syndrome in children, with relapse occuring in the majority of them, but there is little experience concerning single-dose prednisolone therapy, especially considering the relapse rate. In this prospective study on 36 consecutive children with primary nephrotic s...

Estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) plays a major role in the expression of estrogen-responsive genes. Although its conventional binding characteristics have been considered coincident with & exclusively in the class of steroid hormone receptors, increasing evidence challenges this paradigm. ERα was shown to bind to consensus estrogen response element half-sites (cHERE) in DNA in the presence of the ...

The biological significance of 11β-hydroxyandrostenedione (11OHA4) has eluded researchers for the past six decades. It is now known that 11OHA4 is biosynthesized in the androgen arm of the adrenal steroidogenesis pathway and subsequently metabolized by steroidogenic enzymes in vitro, serving as precursor to recognized and novel androgenic steroids. These in vitro findings extend beyond the adre...

Steroid sulfatase plays a pivotal role in regulating the formation of biologically active steroids from inactive steroid sulfates. It is responsible for the hydrolysis of estrone sulfate and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate to estrone and dehydroepiandrosterone, respectively, both of which can be subsequently reduced to steroids with estrogenic properties (i.e. estradiol and androstenediol) that ...

Over a period of 16 years (1971-87) all cases of chronic active hepatitis (CAH) diagnosed following liver biopsy have been reviewed to assess incidence, aetiology, outcome and response to treatment. North Tees District serves a population of 210,000 and 26 cases were identified (20 female) age range 9-73 years (median 56 years). Incidence remained constant at 1:100,000/year. Twenty cases (77%) ...

Gonadal steroid hormones act throughout the body to elicit changes in gene expression that result in profound effects on reproductive physiology and behavior. Steroid hormones exert many of these effects by binding to their respective intracellular receptors, which are members of a nuclear receptor superfamily of transcriptional activators. A variety of in vitro studies indicate that nuclear re...

A 58-year-old woman presented with the classical features of polymyalgia rheumatica. She also had a global dementia; CT scan and EEG showed diffuse cerebral disease. After steroid treatment, the polymyalgia rheumatica and dementia rapidly resolved and the CT scan and EEG became normal. The inter-relationships of the giant cell arteritides are discussed in the light of this report of the associa...