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This review discusses the highlights of the recently made discovery about the ability of hormones to eject ‘solvated electrons’ (e aq – ) in water containing media. The resulting consequences for communication with other biological systems by the electron-transfer process, formation of metabolites, the possible initiation of cancer, hormone regeneration and the action of hormone-receptor systems are briefly discussed. The molecular structure of the hormones and the environment are hereby found to be the most important determining factors for the yield of ejected e aq – . Furthermore, the hormone transients, which result from emission of e aq –, are reviewed, as well as the formation of metabolites, which can be involved in various biological processes. The hormone-transients can also be regenerated by electron-transfer from a potent electron donor, at least partly, as long as they are in a ‘status nascendi state’. The discussion of all these effects is supported by corresponding experimental data and experiments in vitro. This review presents a complete new conception of the action mechanisms of hormones.

Background: To detect genes associated with the expression of ESR1 and PGR – as well as of their protein products, estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) – 221 de-identified invasive ductal carcinomas of the breast were investigated. Our long-term goal is to decipher relationships between the expression of ER- and PR-associated genes and breast cancer behavior to improve diagnostics and identify new molecular targets for drug design. Materials and methods: Frozen tissue sections were evaluated for structural integrity and pathology after hematoxylin and eosin staining. ER and PR protein levels were quantified by either enzyme immunoassay or radio-ligand binding assay. Total RNA preparations were reverse transcribed for qPCR measurements of ESR1 , PGR and 31 gene candidates. Results: Both ESR1 and PGR expression levels were correlated with their cognate receptor protein expression (Pearson correlations of 0.82 and 0.68, p<0.001, respectively), to assess molecular relationships between clinically relevant biomarkers in tissue specimens. Coordinate expression of EVL , NAT1 , TBC1D9 , SCUBE2 , RABEP1 , SLC39A6 , TCEAL1 , FUT8 , XBP1 , PTP4A2 or GATA3 with either ESR1 or PGR was detected. Conclusions: Examination of relationships between ESR1 and PGR gene expression and that of other genes of interest indicated: a high degree of correlation between ESR1 levels and expression of NAT1 , SCUBE2 , XBP1 and GATA3 ; and a high degree of correlation between PGR expression and that of NAT1 , ESR1 , SCUBE2 and RABEP1 . These results suggest that direct relationships of these genes exist with estrogen and progestin receptor mediated pathways. Pathway analysis software provided additional evidence of gene interactions.