Technical procedure and ethical behaviour in biotechnologies of reproduction.

BACKGROUND: The significant and constant progress of biotechnologies applied to sterility and infertility has induced a deeper reflection about bioethical problems. The analysis of only the biological dimension, about the results achieved and desirable future prospects, decreases, leaving out the anthropological dimension. It is therefore necessary to make reference to both the limits of the basic or applied research and to the usual welfare procedure. The aim, that the article sets itself, is to proceed to the bioethical analysis of the most significant topics of artificial insemination and assisted procreation; and it submits to anthropological evaluation the technical aspects, which characterize both the procreation techniques and the research prospects in this area. METHODS: The bioethical analysis, used as a method of study and research, has availed itself of structured reasoning through the evaluation of the scientific, anthropological and legal-deontological dimensions, from an interdisciplinary point of view. The definition of the ethical norm, supported by authors, has been inferred from the analysis of the above-mentioned dimensions, considering the already known bioethical models. In particular, the authors analyse these topics through the model of ontologically based personalism, which suggests, and highlights, ethical norms, both as regards the basic and applied research and as regards usual welfare procedure, in opposition to models like moral sociologism, biologism, moral evolutionism and contractualism. From the beginning we defined "technical procedure" and "ethical behaviour", highlighting the interaction between them. We have made a distinction between artificial insemination, as a substitutive technique, and assisted procreation, as a facilitative technique. In addition through biological and anthropological results we have evaluated the embryo both ontologically and biologically. So we have defined "ontological and biological embryo status". RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The evaluation of the proposed topics for assisted procreation and against artificial insemination, the interaction between technical procedure and ethical behaviour, the acknowledgement of the embryo and personal dignity in every procedure are the principal results and the conclusions that we have arrived at, as regards the bioethical model of ontologically based personalism.

[Effects of metformin on insulin resistance and on ovarian steroidogenesis in women with polycystic ovary syndrome]. / Effetti della metformina sull'insulino-resistenza e sulla steroidogenesi ovarica in donne affette da sindrome dell'ovaio policistico.

BACKGROUND: Polycystic ovary syndrome is considered the most frequent endocrine abnormality during the fertile age. Hyperinsuli-nemia, typical of this syndrome, alters the functionality of the cytochrome P450 c 17 alfa and this causes an exaggerated secretion of male hormones produced by the female gonad. Objective of this study was to verify if the reduction of the circulating insulin levels, obtained through therapy with metformin, caused the reduction of LH levels, LH:FSH ratio, of testosterone and androstenedione levels, but also of cholesterolemia, triglyceridemia, BMI, and naturally of insulinemia, glycemia, as well as an increase in HDLC (high density lipoprotein cholesterol). METHODS: The presence of insulin-resistance and hyperinsulinemia, in 15 women aged between 20 and 30 with BMI >26 kg/m2, has been verified with test loaded with glucose; 500 mg of metformin have been given to these women three times a day before meals for 12 weeks. LH and FSH levels, LH:FSH ratio testosterone, androstenedione, progesterone, estradiol levels, cholesterolemia, trygliceridemia, HDLC and BMI have been considered in each patient before and after therapy. RESULTS: A statistically significant modification of all measured parameters was observed but the most important data is the reduction of the androgens. CONCLUSIONS: The reduction of insulinemia seems to be actually associated with a reduction of circulating androgens in women with polycystic ovary syndrome. As well as the reproductive function, this insulin-sensitizing agent has the further <> advantage of a possible favourable effect also on the complications of the polycystic ovary syndrome specifically connected with: glucose-intolerance, dislipidemia, arteriosclerosis and hypertension. To consider the effects on the complications of the syndrome it would be necessary to give the drug for a period longer than 12 weeks.

[Carcinoembryonic antigen in genital infections caused by HPV]. / Antigène carcino-embryonnaire dans les infections génitales à HPV.

The immunohistochemical search for the carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA) was positive in 28.14 per cent of the cases of plane cervical condylomata, in 25 per cent of the cases of infections of the vulva by HPV, and in up to 40 per cent of the cases of cervical or vulvar lesions. These data are in accordance with those reported in the literature, even if the number of cases studied is too limited to enable us to make a significant comparison. As a result, the CEA might prove to be a useful marker for a more accurate biological and chemical classification of genital lesions by HPV.

Thyroid hormones in the human pregnancy.

Radio-immunologic T3, T4, FT3, FT4, rT3, TBG and 17 beta-estradiol were measured in women in the 2nd and 3rd trimester of pregnancy, during labor, and during the first 14 days of the puerperium. A group of women suffering with gestosis EPH were also investigated. Our data suggest that in women suffering with gestosis EPH and during labor in normal pregnancy there is a T3-selective defect (low T3 syndrome) in which the conversion route of T4 into T3 is inhibited while the conversion route of T4 into rT3 remains fully operative, resulting in low plasma levels of T3 and FT3 and normal levels of T4, normal or high levels of FT4 and high levels of reverse T3.

Fetal prolactin levels and respiratory distress syndrome.

Prolactin levels were measured by radioimmunoassay in cord blood of infants between 28 and 40 weeks of gestation. Also infants, whose mothers received betamethasone prior to delivery, were examined. Between 33 and 36 weeks, the mean plasma cord prolactin levels in infants who developed RDS were significantly lower than HPRL levels in those infants who did not develop RDS. These findings suggest that betamethasone did not alter HPRL levels and point out the possibility of a role of prolactin in fetal lung maturation.