Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: CACNA1C gene encodes the L-type voltage dependent calcium channels and its variants are associated with susceptibility to psychiatric disorders. We recently provided evidence of a genotype-by-environment interaction of the CACNA1C rs1006737 polymorphism, suggesting that the cortisol awakening response (CAR), an indicator of HPA-axis function, might be increased in non-risk allele carriers (GG) who have experienced childhood trauma (CT). In these...

Introduction: It has been suggested that BMI, especially above 30, is associated with subfertility in men. At the same time validity of BMI to distinguish variability in body composition, have been questioned (MacDonald, 2010). In our study, we employed more accurate surrogate measures of adiposity to investigate the relations of semen parameters and reproductive hormones with waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR).Methods: During 2010...

Vitamin D is a recognised important factor in bone health but in recent years is receiving much attention for its role in multiple other systems. The enthusiasm with which it is embraced as an elixir vitae especially in cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative diseases is overwhelming and matched only by the skepticism from other quarters, since solid evidence is largely lacking. I will review the pleiotropic effects of vitamin D and how they may be of relevance to...

PSMA-11 belongs to the substance class of peptidomimetic prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) inhibitors. In general, the class of urea-based PSMA inhibitors was firstly described by Kozikowski et al. in 2001 [1] and one of the first preclinical imaging studies using PSMA radioligands in PSMA-positive tumor xenografts were reported by Pomper et al. in 2005 [2]. PSMA is an optimal target both for imaging and therapy of prostate cancer. The now well establ...

Addison’s disease is a rare disorder and mostly due to an immune-mediated adrenal destruction similar to the organ specific loss of function in autoimmune hypothyroidism in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis or type 1 diabetes. Adrenal insufficiency occurs thereby as isolated disease or is accompanied by other autoimmune disorders forming the autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome (mostly APS2). A major problem of Addison’s disease is that the diagnosis is often late or may be ...

Autoimmunity has been associated with maternal–fetal microchimerism both in animal models and in human observational studies. The concept has been studied in various model systems, organ involvements and epidemiological studies. The sensitivity to detect such microchimers (fetal cells in maternal tissue: fetal–maternal microchimerism, maternal–fetal: maternal cells in a child’s compartment) varies with the methods applied and the reproducibility of detectio...

39-year old female reported usage of methylprednisolone (20–80 mg daily) for three months since the last decade of January 2020. She received methylprednisolone for controlling of panniculitis of Weber-Kristen (diagnosis was proved twice histologically in Ukraine and Austria. Before starting steroid therapy, there was no glucose impairment in her history. The patient has different complaints, including fatigue, increased body temperature, hypersensitivity of the skin, vo...

Objective: The human androgen recteptor (AR) contains a polyglutamine and a polyglycine stretch that are highly polymorphic and are coded by a CAG and GGN repeat, respectively, in exon 1 of the AR gene. Although in vitro studies indicated a possible effect on AR gene tanscription and clinical observations suggest a modulation of androgen action, the functional significance of the GGN repeat remains unclear.We wanted to assess whether the GGN repea...

We investigated the SNP rs16944 in German type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients and healthy controls (HC) and correlated the findings with concentrations of VD metabolites.Methods: 504 T2D patients and 447 HC were genotyped by a Taqman assay. Additionally 25(OH)D3 and 1,25(OH)2D3 plasma levels of 76 T2D patients and 267 HC were measured by radioimmunoassay.Results: The AA genotype was significantly less fr...

Introduction: Adrenal crises are potentially life-threatening complications in patients with adrenal insufficiency (AI). Our objective was to investigate the frequency of adrenal crises in patients with different forms of AI in the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), one of the largest German Health Insurance providers, covering more than 12% of the German population.Design: The Statutory Health Insurance (SHI) database of the TK was analysed for diagnostic cod...