Endocrine Abstracts

Long-acting somatostatin analogues normalize serum IGF-I levels in about 65% of acromegalic patients. Somatostatin analogs reduce GH secretion but also induce GH resistance of the liver because of low portal insulin levels; i.e. patients have a relative high GH level and a GH resistance of the liver which results in a relative low IGF-I action because of high IGFBP1 levels, but the other tissues still have normal GH sensitivity. One might predict that long-term follow-up of tr...

Introduction: Adequate hormone replacement therapy in adrenal insufficiency is essential. Patients should have basic knowledge about their condition and what to do in situations which could trigger an adrenal crisis. Education on how and when hydrocortisone replacement therapy should be adjusted as well as instruction and practice an emergency injection are considered important measures to prevent an adrenal crisis. A standardized nurse-led group-based education programme (GEP...

Introduction: The clinical relevance of low IGF-I levels, caused by cranial radiotherapy, in adult childhood cancer survivors has not been studied extensively. We evaluated whether IGF-I is a useful marker for altered body composition and growth hormone deficiency in this group.Methods: We analyzed retrospective data from 610 adult childhood cancer survivors, retrieved from the late effects clinic. Median age at diagnosis was 6 years (interquartile range...

Introduction: Cortistatin (CST) is a 17 amino-acid neuropeptide involved in sleep regulation. Due to its structural resemblance to somatostatin (SS), CST binds with high affinity to the 5 known SS receptors. CST also binds to the putative MrgX2 receptor. Previously we demonstrated that various types of human immune cells and tissues as well as lymphoid cell lines express CST mRNA. We suggested that CST plays a regulatory role in immune cell function both in physiological and p...

Introduction: Adrenal insufficiency, or relative insufficiency, might partly explain increased mortality rates in nephroblastoma and neuroblastoma survivors after unilateral adrenalectomy. Aim of this study was to assess adrenal function and its metabolic effects after unilateral adrenalectomy.Patients and Methods: Cross-sectional study with a socio-demographically similar control group, conducted between October 2009-March 2011 at the Erasmus University...

Introduction: Growth hormone (GH) is not only important for growth during childhood. Also, for (young) adults, growth hormone is important for bone mass, muscle strength and metabolism. GH deficiency (GHD) is a condition that can cause a broad range of adult health issues, if left untreated. Therefore on one hand, it is important to confirm and treat GHD after transfer to adult care. On the other hand, the personal and financial burden of unnecessary growth hormone in...

Objective: Growth hormone treatment (GHT) is a widely accepted treatment in growth hormone deficient (GHD) adults with nonfunctioning pituitary adenoma (NFPAs). However, concerns remain about the safety of GHT, because of its potentially stimulating effect on tumour (re)growth. The aim of this study was to evaluate tumour progression in NFPA patients using GHT.Patients and methods: From the Dutch National Registry of growth hormone treatment in adults, a...

Medical treatment of acromegaly is based on either suppressing pituitary GH secretion or inhibiting GH action by preventing interaction with its receptor in order to suppress the elevated levels of IGF1. AZP-3813 is a 16-amino acid, bicyclic peptide antagonist of the GH receptor (GHR) derived from peptide sequences discovered using a unique, cell-free in vitro transcription-translation system screened against the human GHR, and that was optimized by rational design to increase...

The key metabolic hormone, leptin, acts in part through the liver to regulate glucose homeostasis, as well as the maturation of both adipocytes and osteoblasts. These actions have been demonstrated to be mediated by insulin-like growth factor binding protein 2 (IGFBP-2), independent of its ability to bind IGF1. The effects of IGFBP-2 on adipocyte and osteoblast maturation can be localized to a short peptide sequence within the unique heparin binding domain (HBD-1) of IGFBP-2. ...

Background: Efficacy and safety of combination treatment of pasireotide LAR with pegvisomant (PEGV) has not been studied yet. Switching to Pasireotide LAR in patients previously controlled with long-acting somatostatin analogues (LA-SSAs) and PEGV could reduce the required PEGV dose to normalize serum IGF1 levels, while the effect on glucose metabolism is unknown.Methods: We enrolled 60 acromegaly patients >18 years with acromegaly who had normal IGF...