A decreasing CD4+/CD8+ ratio after one month of treatment with stanazolol in postmenopausal women.

Steroids. 1995 Jul;60(7):430-3.

A decreasing CD4+/CD8+ ratio after one month of treatment with stanazolol in
postmenopausal women.

Zofková I, Kancheva RL, Hampl R.

Institute of Endocrinology, Prague, Czech Republic.

Androgens influence some immunological processes, including the differentiation
of T-cells in CD4+ (helpers) or CD8+ (suppressors/cytotoxic) phenotype. In nine
postmenopausal osteoporotic women the effect of stanazolol on lymphocyte counts,
CD3+ and the immunoregulatory index (CD4+/CD8+) were investigated. In the placebo
group, ten postmenopausal osteoporotic women of similar age were included. The
means of the investigated indices after stanazolol as compared with the values
before treatment were as follows: lymphocyte counts (cells/microL +/- SEM) 2974
+/- 225 versus 2313 +/- 166, CD3+ (%) 54.3 +/- 5.5 versus 70.9 +/- 1.6 (P <
0.05); CD4+/CD8+ ratio 1.8 +/- 0.02 versus 2.5 +/- 0.28 (P < 0.05). The values
after placebo as compared with the values before placebo were: 2558 +/- 201
versus 2370 +/- 256, 62.9 +/- 2.1 versus 64.8 +/- 1.7 and 1.6 +/- 0.2 versus 1.6
+/- 0.1 in sequence. The treatment was controlled by the serum stanazolol levels
before and after steroid administration (unmeasurable versus 20.8 +/- 3.4 nmol/L,
P < 0.01). The good compliance of the therapy was confirmed by a decline of serum
LH (U/L; 30.1 +/- 3.1 versus 24.7 +/- 2.8, P = 0.014), FSH (U/L; 108.9 +/- 13.1
versus 93.3 +/- 12.8, P = 0.012) and serum sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG;
nmol/L; 53.3 +/- 13.3 versus 11.2 +/- 1.9, P < 0.01). The decline of SHBG
indicates a good tissue sensitivity to the androgen. There were no significant
differences between hormonal parameters before and after placebo treatment. In
conclusion, the immunosuppressive effect of the androgen, stanazolol, was
confirmed in the investigated postmenopausal osteoporotic women.(ABSTRACT
TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)