Expression of P450c17 messenger ribonucleic acid in postmenopausal human ovary tissues

To investigate the expression of the P450c17 gene in postmenopausal human ovaries compared with normal cycling ovaries.

Prospective nonrandomized clinical research study.

Servei de Medicina Reproductiva and Centre d'Investigacions en Bioquimica i Biologia Molecular, Hospitals Vall d'Hebron, Barcelona, Spain.

Six premenopausal women and four postmenopausal women undergoing bilateral oophorectomy for nonovarian gynecologic disease.

Extraction of 10 mL of peripheral venous blood for hormone measurements. Extraction of RNA from surgically removed ovaries for Northern blot, ribonuclease protection, and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction Southern blot assays.

Definition of the reproductive cycle state of each patient and determination of the level of P450c17 gene expression in all samples with the use of the semiquantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction Southern blot assay.

P450c17 messenger RNA levels in postmenopausal ovaries varied considerably between samples. Although the levels were similar to those detected in the early follicular phase, one of the samples had levels as high as those observed in the late follicular phase.

Although the degree varied from one sample to another, all the postmenopausal ovaries studied expressed the P450c17 gene at the messenger RNA level. In a sample from a patient with endometrial adenocarcinoma, the level was as high as the levels observed in the late follicular phase.