Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: To evaluate if improved thyroid status in patients with hypopituitarism would improve cardiovascular risk markers.Patients and methods: A total of 85 hypopituitary patients (45 women) with GH deficiency; 7 had isolated GH deficiency, 25, 16 and 22 patients had 1, 2 and 3 additional deficits respectively. Fifteen patients had panhypopituitarism. Biochemical and body composition assessment was performed at baseline (when patients were GH na&#...

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare endocrine malignancy with an unfavorable prognosis. Despite the poor prognosis in the majority of patients, no improvements in treatment strategies have been achieved. Therefore, the discovery of new prognostic biomarkers is of enormous interest. Sterol-O-acyl transferase 1 (SOAT1) is involved in cholesterol esterification and lipid droplet formation. Recently, it was demonstrated that SOAT1 inhibition leads to impaired steroidogenesis ...

Introduction: O,p’DDD is the drug of choice for patients with adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC). Monitoring o,p’DDD serum level has been proposed as predictor of tumour response. Measurement of o,p’DDD metabolites involved in the active pathway may provide an improved prediction of o,p’DDD activity. The objective of our study was to (1)to confirm the currently used threshold o,p’DDD serum level of 14mg/l for achieving a tumour response and (2)compare the ...

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare malignancy with heterogeneous but dismal prognosis and despite numerous efforts to improve patient care, effective treatment options are still lacking. ACC in vitro research faces for decades one major obstacle - the unavailability of different ACC cell line models. Here, we present a newly established human ACC cell line that was directly transferred to and now proliferates in cell culture. JIL-O cell line was derived from a p...

Background: Mitotane,(o,p’-DDD)is a compound with potent adrenotoxic effect and is able to block cortisol synthesis by inhibiting 11β-hydroxylation and cholesterol chain cleavage. For these reasons, mitotane was widely used in the treatment of adrenocortical cancer. Nevertheless the biological mechanism induced by these treatments in this cancer cells remain unknown.Aim: To study whether the o,p’-DDD could increase the susceptibility to th...

Introduction: Alternative to transsphenoidal pituitary surgery (TSS) may be required in Cushing’s disease (CD), as first or second line treatment. 1,ortho-1,para′-dichloro-diphenyl-dichloroethane (o,p′DDD) has a potent anticortisolic action. Its place in CD treatment is not well defined. The aim of this study was to further evaluate the efficacy and tolerance of o,p′DDD in CD.Patients and m...

Background: OPKO Biologics is a clinical-stage public company developing long-acting therapeutic proteins utilizing CTP technology. The technology involves fusion of the C-terminal peptide of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), which is highly O-glycosylated, to the target protein. CTP enabled the production of a long-acting human growth hormone (hGH) (MOD-4023), which supports a single weekly injection in growth hormone-deficient patients. MOD-4023 is manufactured as a non-vi...

Background and aimsGlucose homeostasis is essential for life. The liver is among the key tissues for maintaining an adequate metabolic homeostasis and its alterations are at the root of the pathogenesis of many disease states. A perfect balance between glucose production, mainly at the liver, and glucose consumption in different tissues, is provided by the action of insulin and counterregulatory hormones as glucagon, cortisol or catecholamines. There is ...

Growth hormone (GH) has a well known anabolic effect on skeletal muscles, and patients with GH deficiency (GHD) are characterised by a reduced muscle mass, but also reduced bone mineral density (BMD) and content (BMC), which have been ascribed to GHD per se. Correspondingly, the increase in bone and muscle mass by GH therapy has been seen as separate GH influences on bones and muscles, respectively. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate if changes in BMD/BM...

Ghrelin is a circulating growth hormone-releasing and appetite-inducing brain–gut peptide. It needs to be acylated on its serine-3 with octanoate for its endocrine actions. The acyl-transferase that catalyses ghrelin octanoylation has been recently identified and named GOAT (ghrelin O-acyltransferase), which is coded by the MBOAT4 gene. This study aimed to investigate GOAT expression in human. The distribution of GOAT mRNA expression was studied in various human ti...