Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Cystic fibrosis-related bone disease (CFBD) is an emerging complication of cystic fibrosis (CF), especially in CF-lung transplant candidates for end-stage disease.Objectives: The assessment of vitamin D levels, bone mineral density (BMD) and morphometric and clinical prevalent fragility fractures in a cohort of young adults affected with CF awaiting lung transplantation for end-stage respiratory failure.Methods: In 42 C...

Paolo Sassone-Corsi, California, USA AbstractPaolo Sassone-Corsi is Donald Bren Professor at the University of California, Irvine, where he is Director of the Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism. He is also External Member of the Max-Planck Institute, Germany. Paolo Sassone-Corsi is an internationally recognized leader in the field of genetics and cell bi...

Paolo Sassone-Corsi, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA AbstractPaolo Sassone-Corsi is Donald Bren Professor at the University of California, Irvine, where he is Director of the Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism. He is also External Member of the Max-Planck Institute, Germany. Paolo Sassone-Corsi is an internationally recognized leader in the field of genetics and cell biology. After his PhD in Italy, he ha...

Paolo Beck-Peccoz, University of Milan, Milan, Italy AbstractPaolo Beck-Peccoz graduated (MD) from the University of Turin and later specialised in endocrinology and Internal medicine. He joined the University of Milan as an Intern and rose to the position of Director, 2nd school of specialization in Endocrinology.He was the Editor-in Chief of the European Journal of Endocrinology from 1998-2007....

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic disease of childhood that also presents in adults, resulting from the destruction of insulin-producing β-cells by auto-reactive T cells that have escaped central and peripheral immune tolerance. It is now well established that T1D is characterised by a wide heterogeneity especially in terms of age at onset, representing a major barrier for both pathogenesis and translational efforts aimed to develop novel therapeutics approach. This conc...

In the last 20 years, the incidence of thyroid cancer (TC) has more than doubled. Since 50% of the increase is related to papillary microcarcinomas (mPTC, <1 cm), it appears that an increased detection, due to the wide use of neck ultrasound (US), is the major factor driving this dramatic rise. Autoptic and histological studies after thyroidectomy (TX) show that 10 to 30% of adults harbor an undiagnosed mPTC. The disease-specific mortality of patients treated by s...

This talk summarizes recent studies analysing the contribution of specific guidance molecules named semaphorins in the development and adult function of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons. In vertebrates, the GnRH decapeptide regulates the secretion of luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone, which govern puberty onset, gametogenesis, and estrous cycling, from anterior pituitary gonadotropes. During embryonic development, these cells originate from the ...

Small, non-palpable thyroid nodules, detectable by thyroid ultrasound (US) in 30–50% of the general population, are likely to cause no significant health problem, thus deserving the definition of ‘thyroid incidentalomas’. Although clinically overt thyroid cancer is relatively rare, the most relevant issue for thyroid incidentalomas is the exclusion of malignancy by cytological examination of material obtained by fine needle aspiration (FNA). However, in about 30...

Primary aldosteronism (PA) is the most frequent form of endocrine hypertension. The identification of the subtype of PA is fundamental to distinguish between subtypes that benefit from surgery and subtypes that should be treated pharmacologically with mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists. CT scanning is the most sensitive imaging technique for the identification of adrenal nodules but lacks sensitivity and specificity. Also posture test and other clinical criteria of ‘h...

The morbidity and mortality associated with long-term diabetic complications continue to rise and will remain a major worldwide health problem in the coming years. Islet cell transplantation has recently emerged as one the most promising therapeutic approaches to improving glycometabolic control in diabetic patients and, in many cases, to obtaining insulin independence. Unfortunately, many flaws still persist that make it impossible for islet transplantation to become the gold...