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This study was to investigate the association between sex hormone levels and metabolic syndrome (MetS) risk in female schizophrenia inpatients. In total, 93 female schizophrenia patients were enrolled based on their electronic medical records of hospitalization at the Zigong Psychiatric Research Center, China, between August 2022 to September 2022. Baseline information was collected retrospectively from medical records 6 months before. Logistic regression analysis was applied to assess the potential relationship between sex hormone levels and the risk of developing MetS. 31.2% (29/93) of the total patients, 25.5% (12/47) of the 18–49 age group, and 37.0% (17/46) of the ≥ 50 age group had a history of MetS; the newly-developed MetS prevalence among all female schizophrenia patients was 15.05% (14/93), which was slightly higher but not statistically significant in older patients (age ≥ 50) than in younger patients (age 18–49) (≥ 50 vs. 18–49, 21.74% vs. 8.5%, p = 0.074). Univariate analysis of sex hormone levels and developed MetS discovered that only high prolactin levels correlated with developed MetS in total participants (p = 0.006), especially in older patients (p = 0.004), while estradiol and testosterone levels were not associated. Furthermore, univariate logistic regression analysis of the total participants and with an adjusted model of the ≥ 50 age group confirmed the association of prolactin with MetS in all (OR = 1.016, 95%CI:1.002–1.029, p = 0.023), and older female schizophrenia patients (OR = 1.04, 95%CI: 1.01–1.07, p = 0.008). High serum levels of prolactin in older patients (age ≥ 50) were strongly correlated with the risk of developing MetS among female schizophrenia patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Differential osteogenic potential and responsiveness to 17β-estradiol (E2) of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were found between postmenopausal women with osteoporosis (OP) and osteoarthritis (OA). These results suggest differential biological mechanisms of estrogen deficiency in regulation of bone remodeling between OP and OA. Introduction: OP and OA are two common disorders in postmenopausal women. The inverse relationship has been suggested between OP and OA, but their mechanisms that relate to estrogen deficiency are not fully understood. The aim of this study was to compare the differential responsiveness to E2 of MSCs from osteoporotic versus osteoarthritic donors. Methods: Twenty postmenopausal patients, ten with osteoporotic hip fractures and ten with hip osteoarthritis, were included into this study. MSCs were derived from cancellous bones of femoral heads from OA and OP donors and cultured in osteogenic and adipogenic medium with or without E2 added. The alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, calcium content, calcified nodules, lipid droplets, messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of ALP, osteocalcin (OC), collagen 1α (COL1α), peroxisome proliferators-activated receptor γ2 (PPARγ2) and lipoprotein lipase (LPL) were measured and compared between two groups with OP and OA. Results: In osteogenic medium, ALP activity, calcium content and mRNA expression of OC and COL1α in MSCs from OA were significantly higher than those from OP group. In adipogenic condition, there was no significant difference in lipid droplets formation and mRNA expression of PPARγ2 and LPL between OP and OA groups. With E2 added in osteogenic medium, ALP activity, calcium content and OC mRNA were significantly higher in OP group than in OA group, whereas E2 had no significant effect on lipid droplet formation and mRNA expression of PPARγ2 and LPL. Conclusion: Differential osteogenic potential and responsiveness to E2 of MSCs were found between postmenopausal women with OP and OA. These results may provide information for clinical application of MSCs in the differential setting of estrogen deficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This study examines the association between sex steroids, bone mineral density (BMD), and incident fractures in 1,489 community-living Chinese men aged 65 and over. Chinese men with low serum estradiol levels display elevated bone loss and increased risk of fractures similar to findings in Caucasians. Introduction: This study examines the association between serum total testosterone (TT), free testosterone (free T), estradiol (E), bioavailable estradiol (bioE), sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), BMD, and incident fractures. Methods: This is a cohort study with 4-year follow-up in the community in Hong Kong SAR, China. One thousand four hundred eighty-nine community-living Chinese men aged 65 and over participated. Sex steroid levels and BMD were measured at baseline; BMD was repeated after 4 years of follow-up, and fracture incidence from ascertainment from hospital databases was determined over 4 years of follow-up. Results: The strongest age-adjusted positive association with total hip and femoral neck BMD was with bioE, followed by E. Greater bone loss occurred in the lowest quartile of E and bioE. The lowest quartile of free T and bioE and the two highest quartile of SHBG were associated with the highest percentage of participants with incident fractures. Those in the lowest quartile of E and bioE had approximately a 50% increased risk of incident fractures compared with the other three quartiles. This relationship remains significant for nonvertebral incident fractures (hip, radius, pelvis, and humerus) for E only, but not bioE. Compared with the group with the three highest quartiles of TT and E, the group with the lowest quartile of both had approximately twice the risk of nonvertebral osteoporosis-related incident fractures. Conclusion: Chinese men with low serum estradiol levels display elevated bone loss and increased risk of fractures similar to findings in Caucasians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this investigation was to study the relationship between the symptoms of female gonococcal infections and serum progesterone level and the genotypes of Neisseria gonorrhoeae multi-antigen sequence type (NG-MAST) in Wuhan, China. Eighty-one strains of N. gonorrhoeae were harvested from the vaginal discharge of 975 adult females in Wuhan and were genotyped by using NG-MAST. Serum progesterone (P) and estradiol (E) levels were measured by radio immunoassay (RIA) in 39 gonorrhea-infected patients with slight symptoms (asymptomatic group) and 42 patients with conspicuous symptoms (symptomatic group). The average levels of serum progesterone in the asymptomatic group were significantly higher than in the symptomatic group ( p < 0.05), while no significant difference was found in serum estradiol between the two groups. Of 81 wild-type isolates, 50 NG-MAST sequence types were associated with female infections in Wuhan, and N. gonorrhoeae ST2951, ST735, and ST436 were principally found in asymptomatic patients. ST809 and ST369, however, were mainly detected in asymptomatic female subjects. Gonococcal genetic island (GGI)-positive and GGI-negative strains were found in both the asymptomatic group and the symptomatic group. In females with gonococcal infection, high serum progesterone level is associated with the absence of symptoms, but no association was revealed between genotypes and the presence of symptoms. The GGI bears no relation to the absence of symptoms in the patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Male Chinese loaches were exposed to 17β-estradiol (E2) and nonylphenol (NP) both singly and in combination for 42 days using semi-static waterborne exposure system. Plasma vitellogenin (Vtg) was chosen as determining endpoint. The results demonstrated that 0.5 μg/L E2 could induce the enhancement of Vtg contents in male Chinese loaches after exposure for 21 days, which showed a time-related increasing manner; NP was also estrogenic to male Chinese loach, and the vitelbogenic responses showed in a time- and dose-related manner, which was less potent than that of E2. The binary mixtures of E2 and NP can significantly elicit the production of Vtg in male Chinese loaches, which was more potent than that of individual compounds, and Vtg induced in the binary mixture groups was higher than the summation of Vtg induced in the corresponding single-compound groups at the same concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates the haemodynamic assessment of tubal and male factors of infertility in natural and ovarian stimulation cycles among women in Hong Kong, China. Administration of frozen thawed embryo replacement; Monitor of subjects via serum estradiol assay; Adaptation of a statistical analysis by the Mann-Whitney U-test.