Because 19 patients were infected with the Chlamydia species strain TWAR and M. pneumoniae, and 24 patients were infected with beta-hemolytic streptococci, the diagnostic procedures and therapies for adult patients with pharyngitis need to be reconsidered. The results of our study also confirm earlier suggestions that the Chlamydia species strain TWAR alone is a causative agent for pharyngitis in adults.

Prostate tissues removed from patients with benign prostatic hypertrophy were separated into epithelia and stromal components and the concentrations of testosterone, 5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone, 5 alpha-androstane-3 alpha,17 beta-diol, 4-androstene-3,17-dione, 5 alpha-androstanedione and androsterone in these two fractions were determined by radioimmunoassays after the purification of solvent steroid extracts by Lipidex-5000 column chromatography. On a 'per cell' basis (i.e. relative to DNA), testosterone was equally distributed between the two components, while the other androgens measured were more abundant in the stroma. The observation that 5 alpha-reduced androgens (especially 5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone) were more concentrated in the stroma, and that significant correlations between concentrations of metabolically related androgens were more common in the stroma than in the epithelium, indicate that the stroma is an important site of androgen metabolism in benign prostatic hypertrophic tissues. The present data also support the suggestion that 5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone produced in the prostatic stroma may be transferred to the epithelium by way of sex hormone binding globulin in the extracellular spaces of the prostate.

No abstract

Prostate tissues from patients with benign prostatic hypertrophy were separated into epithelial and stromal components and the concentrations of zinc and cadmium were determined in these two fractions and in whole tissue by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The concentrations of testosterone and Sa-dihydrotestosterone (Sa-DHT) were determined by radioimmunoassays. The concentration of zinc was found to be significantly greater (P < .001) in epithelial than in stromal preparations: 17.32 f 1.15 vs 7.29 f 0.53 pmol/g dry weight (SEM, n = 15). The concentrations of cadmium in epithelium, 9.55 f 1.31 nmollg dry weight (SEM, n = 15) and in stroma, 6.65 f 1.06 nmollg dry weight (SEM, n = 1% did not differ significantly. The concentrations of zinc and cadmium in whole tissues were 13.88 f 1.70 pmol/g dry weight and 8.85 k 1.53 nmol/g dry weight, respectively (SEM, n = 15).In epithelial preparations, cadmium and testosterone were inversely correlated, but no other correlations were noted between metal and androgen concentrations in whole tissue, stroma, or epithelium.The results of the present study indicate that zinc preferably resides in the epithelium of human prostatic tissue, particularly in BPH, although the stroma also contains significant amounts of this metal. Cadmium appears to be more evenly distributed between the epithelium and stroma of prostatic tissue and previous findings of high cadmium concentrations in hypertrophic and carcinomatous prostatic tissue were not confirmed.

Androgen receptors have been characterized and quantified in nuclear extracts of separated epithelium and stroma from human benign prostatic hypertrophic (BPH) glands. Tritiated dihydrotestosterone was used as the ligand and incubation was carried out at 15 degrees C for 18-20 hr before separation of bound and free ligand using dextran-coated charcoal. The results were analysed by Scatchard-type analysis. The concentration of receptor was found to be significantly (p = 0.022) greater in stromal than in epithelial nuclei: 1765 +/- 152 vs 1030 +/- 227 fmol/mg DNA (SEM, n = 6). Fourteen competitors were tested and the results indicated the presence of specific androgen receptors rather than contaminating sex-hormone-binding globulin. This was also borne out by the results of agar gel electrophoresis and sucrose gradient ultracentrifugation studies. The results are in line with current opinion that prostatic stroma is an important androgen-sensitive tissue, particularly in human BPH.