Cells from benign and borderline malignant mucinous cystadenomas surgically resected from three postmenopausal women with elevated serum estradiol levels were found to have different abilities to synthesize estrogen from [14C]-cholesterol. Addition of gonadotropins to cultured cells with low levels of estrogen synthesis did not result in any significant increase in estrogen synthesis. Immunohistochemical studies of these mucinous cystadenomas showed that LDL receptors were distributed in the benign cystadenoma cells and in the stromal cells of borderline tumors, but not in the cystadenoma cells of borderline tumors. Sterol regulatory element binding protein was immunohistochemically shown to be distributed in the mucinous cystadenoma cells of borderline tumors, but not in the benign cystadenoma cells.

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