[The capacity of glucocorticoid receptors for activation as a possible criterion of the hormonal sensitivity of human tumors].

For the functional activity evaluation of glucocorticoid receptors (GR) a specific method for their activated form determination was developed on the experimental model of the rat liver. The method is based on the interaction of GR with DNA-cellulose. It has been shown that 26-41% of the total rat liver GR are able of undergoing activation and being bound to DNA-cellulose. Activated GR were studied in 88 renal tumours and in 37 melanomas. 20% of renal tumours and 33% of melanomas contain GR which are not able to undergo activation. The number of activated GR in most cases is much lower than the total GR number. There is no direct correlation between the concentrations of total and activated GR, as well as between the total GR content and the percent of activated forms in the whole receptor pool. It appears that the study of activated GR may give more reliable information about the hormone sensitivity of tumours than the determination of the total receptor content.