Endocrine Abstracts

Testosterone reduces myocardial ischaemia in men with coronary artery disease (CAD) and improves symptoms and exercise capacity in men with congestive heart failure (CHF), effects proposed to be due to testosterone-induced vasodilatation. Isolated vessel studies suggest this occurs via a calcium antagonistic action upon voltage-gated Ca2+ channels but this has yet to be investigated directly.We therefore employed patch clamp methodology to stu...

Introduction: Metformin is now one of the most common treatments for PCOS. However controversy exists about the usefulness of metformin in PCOS women with normal insulin sensitivity and normal weight. The aim of this study was to compare efficacy of metformin treatment for the purpose of restoration of ovulation in lean and obese women with polycystic ovary syndrome.Design: Thirty-six unovulatory women with PCOS (21 lean with mean body mass index (BMI) 2...

In recent years, it was demonstrated that tumor infiltrating and circulating regulatory and cytotoxic T-cells are associated with clinical outcome in several solid tumors. However, their role in adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) was never studied, although 60% of these tumors secrete autonomously cortisol, a well-established potent immunosuppressant that most likely influences the balance between different T-cells.Firstly, we analyzed the circulating regula...

Introduction: Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) has an inhibitory role during folliculogenesis, which may contribute to anovulation in polycistic ovary syndrome (PCOS). AMH level has been shown to be a predictor of reproductive response to weight loss and clomiphene citrate in women with PCOS. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of AMH as a predictor of improvements in menstrual cyclicity and ovulation induction by metformin in lean women with PCOS.<p class="abs...

Background: Mitotane antitumor efficacy is related to plasma levels. Objective responses have been associated with mitotane plasma levels >14 mg/l. However, high plasma levels >20 or >30 mg/l are at higher risk of toxicity, especially neurotoxicity. National-based survey is lacking to evaluate the frequency and severity of high mitotane plasma levels. Our aim was to retrospectively describe serious adverse events (SAE).Methods: Mitotane plasm...

In pregnant women with thyroid diseases an increased amount of LT4 may be required for the correction of hypothyroidism or treatment of nodular goiter. Aim of this study was to assess the amount of the variations of LT4 requirement in pregnant women with thyroid diseases. To address this issue, we retrospectively evaluated a cohort of 107 women treated with LT4 divided in two groups: 42 euthyroid (E) (affected by nodular goiter (NG) treated with LT4 suppressive therapy) and 65...

The pathogenesis of gonadotrophin secreting pituitary tumours (gonadotrophinomas) remains poorly understood. Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are important for the control of cell proliferation and differentiation and BMP2 is essential for commitment of undifferentiated pituitary cells to the gonadotroph cell lineage. In addition, BMPs have been implicated in tumourigenesis in a variety of tissues, associated with up-regulated expression of Id (Inhibitors of differentiation)...

Obesity is one of the leading causes of preventable death in the Western world, and its prevalence is dramatically increasing. Although obesity is primarily a metabolic disease, immunological aberrations also significantly contribute to obesity-related morbidity. The well-established state of chronic low-grade inflammation is considered to be crucial in the development of complications such as diabetes and atherosclerosis. Moreover, obesity is associated with increased suscept...

The importance of the sRANK-L / RANK / Osteoprotegerin (OPG) system in osteoclast function has clearly been demonstrated in the rat. Activating and inactivating mutations lead to severe disturbances of bone remodelling.Since this early animal work, there have been several studies designed to assess the importance of sRANK-L / RANK / OPG in diseases of the human skeleton. sRANK-L and OPG are measurable in blood.This cross-sectional ...

Background: Autoimmune thyroid disorders (AITD) similar in pathomorphology picture results in hyper- or hypothyreosis. The differences between Graves’ disease (GD) and Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT) suggested that changes in the subsets of T-cells may have an influence on the course of this reaction.Methods: The study involved 90 children: 30 with GD, 30 with HT and the control group – 30 children. After thyroidectomy, standard histological examina...