Estrogen-producing ovarian mucinous cystadenomas in postmenopausal women

Cells from benign and borderline malignant mucinous cystadenomas surgically resected from three postmenopausal women with elevated serum estradiol lev els were found to have different abilities to synthesize estrogen from [C-1 4]-cholesterol. Addition of gonadotropins to cultured cells with low levels of estrogen synthesis did not result in any significant increase in estrog en synthesis. Immunohistochemical studies of these mucinous cystadenomas sh owed that LDL receptors were distributed in the benign cystadenoma cells an d in the stromal cells of borderline tumors, but not in the cystadenoma cel ls of borderline tumors. Sterol regulatory element binding protein was immu nohistochemically shown to be distributed in the mucinous cystadenoma cells of borderline tumors, but not in the benign cystadenoma cells.