Experience and gender effects in acquisition experiment with value messages

In the bargaining experiment, the privately informed seller of a company sends a value message to the uninformed potential buyer who proposes a price for acquiring the company. Participants are constantly either seller or buyer and interact over 30 rounds with randomly changing partners. How are overstating the value of the company, underpricing the received value message and acceptance of price offers affected by experience and gender (constellation)? We control via treatments for awareness of gender (constellation) and show that gender (constellation) matters and that the main experience effects apply across gender (constellations)

Effects of estrogens and hormone replacement therapy on breast cancer risk and on efficacy of breast cancer therapies

This review summarises preclinical and clinical data on effects of endogenous and exogenous estrogens on probability of breast cancer diagnosis, and on the course and efficacy of breast cancer therapies. The data indicate that higher endogenous estrogen exposure (e.g. pregnancy, early menarche and late menopause, estrogen levels in future breast cancer patients, obesity) or exogenous estrogens (oral contraceptives, hormone replacement therapies) may be associated with an increased probability of breast cancer diagnosis. However, there is little evidence that estrogens have deleterious effects on the course of breast cancer. Moreover, increased incidence of breast cancer diagnosis after prolonged hormone replacement therapy (HRT) use seems to be associated with clinically less advanced disease. In studies assessing both diagnosis and mortality, HRT is frequently associated with reduced mortality compared to never users. The interaction of progestagens and estrogens on the probability of breast cancer diagnosis is complex and dependent on type of progestagens and regimens employed. Efficacy of current treatment modalities for breast cancer (surgery, irradiation, adjuvant therapy or chemotherapy) is not negatively influenced by estrogens at concentrations considerably higher than those attained with current HRT preparations. Although it cannot be excluded that estrogens increase the probability of breast cancer diagnosis, available data fail to demonstrate that, once breast cancer has been diagnosed, estrogens worsen prognosis, accelerate the course of the disease, reduce survival or interfere with the management of breast cancer. It may therefore be concluded that the prevalent opinion that estrogens and estrogen treatment are deleterious for breast cancer, needs to be revisited. However, results of ongoing prospective, randomised clinical trials with different HRT regimens in healthy women or breast cancer survivors are needed to provide more definite conclusions about risks and benefits of HRT.</p

Difference in signalling between various hormone therapies in endometrium, myometrium and upper part of the vagina

Background: Combined hormone treatments in post-menopausal women have different clinical responses on uterus and vagina; therefore, we investigated differences in steroid signalling between various hormone therapies in these tissues. Methods: A total of 30 post-menopausal women scheduled for hysterectomy were distributed into four subgroups: control-group (n = 9), Tibolone-group (n= 8); estradiol (E-2)-group (n = 7); E-2 + medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA)-group (n = 6). Medication was administered orally every day for 21 days prior to removal of uterus and upper part of the vagina. Tissue RNA was isolated, and gene expression profiles were generated using GeneChip technology and analysed by cluster analysis and significance analysis of microarrays. Apoptosis and cell proliferation assays, as well as immunohistochemistry for hormone receptors were performed. Results: 21-days of treatment with E-2, E-2 + MPA or tibolone imposes clear differential gene expression profiles on endometrium and myometrium. Treatment with E-2 only results in the most pronounced effect on gene expression (up to 1493 genes differentially expressed), proliferation and apoptosis. Tibolone, potentially metabolized to both estrogenic and progestagenic metabolites, shows some resemblance to E-2 signalling in the endometrium and, in contrast, shows significant resemblance to E-2 + MPA signalling in the myometrium. In the vagina the situation is entirely different; all three hormonal treatments result in regulation of a small number (4-73) of genes, in comparison to signalling in endometrium and myometrium. Conclusions: Endometrium and myometrium differentially respond to the hormone therapies and use completely different sets of genes to regulate similar biological processes, while in this experiment the upper part of the vagina is hardly hormone responsive