Acute leukaemia is the most common type of childhood cancer, the acute lymphoblastic type accounting for the majority of cases. Children affected by leukaemia receive various forms of treatments including chemotherapeutic agents and stem cell transplants. Leukaemia and its treatment can directly or indirectly affect oral health and further dental treatments. The oral complications include mucositis, opportunistic infections, gingival inflammation and bleeding, xerostomia and carious lesions. An additional consideration in children is the impact of the treatments on the developing dentition and on orofacial growth. The aim of this review is to describe the oral complications in children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and the methods of prevention and management before, during and after the cancer treatment.

In women, oral menopausal hormonal therapy (MHT) is associated with adverse effects including an increased incidence of thromboembolic events, classically attributed to an increase in several liver-derived coagulation factors due to hepatic first pass. While platelets are central players in thrombus constitution, their implication in women treated with estrogens remains incompletely characterized. Platelets and their medullar progenitors, megakaryocytes, express estrogen receptors (ER) that may explain, at least in part, a sensitivity to hormonal changes. The purpose of this review is to summarize our current knowledge of estrogen actions on platelets and megakaryocytes in mice following in vivo administration and in women using MHT.

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Bone is a multi-skilled tissue, protecting major organs, regulating calcium phosphate balance and producing hormones. Its development during childhood determines height and stature as well as resistance against fracture in advanced age. Estrogens are key regulators of bone turnover in both females and males. These hormones play a major role in longitudinal and width growth throughout puberty as well as in the regulation of bone turnover. In women, estrogen deficiency is one of the major causes of postmenopausal osteoporosis. In this review, we will summarize the main clinical and experimental studies reporting the effects of estrogens not only in females but also in males, during different life stages. Effects of estrogens on bone involve either Estrogen Receptor (ER)α or ERβ depending on the type of bone (femur, vertebrae, tibia, mandible), the compartment (trabecular or cortical), cell types involved (osteoclasts, osteoblasts and osteocytes) and sex. Finally, we will discuss new ongoing strategies to increase the benefit/risk ratio of the hormonal treatment of menopause.

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Postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy (HRT) with estrogen plus progestogens is the first line therapy to treat menopausal symptoms. The progestogen is added to estrogen to reduce or eliminate the excess risk of endometrial cancer due to the unopposed effect of estrogen. Whereas progestin clearly opposes the proliferative and deleterious long-term actions of estrogen on the endometrium, the interference of progestin on the other estrogen action remains unclear. We previously reported that chronic subcutaneous 17α-estradiol (E2) in mice decreases platelet responsiveness, prolongs the tail-bleeding time and protects against acute thromboembolism. Here, we report the tissue-specific interference of progesterone (P4) on the action of E2 in ovariectomized mice. We first confirm that, in our experimental conditions, P4 attenuates the proliferative action of E2 on the uterus and the effects of E2 on vagina weight and lubrication. We then studied the effect of E2 combined with P4 on hemostasis and thrombosis in vivo in mice and found that P4 did not interfere with the main actions of E2 on platelets, bleeding time and arterial and venous thrombosis. Thus, whereas activation of progesterone receptor interferes with the action of E2 on its classic sex targets, P4 appears to have minimal effect on the hemostasis and thrombosis actions of E2, supporting the prominent role of estrogens and the accessory role of natural progestin on the extra-reproductive cells and tissues involved in thrombosis.

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