Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Steroid profiling by LC-MS/MS is increasingly used in endocrine research, and is being introduced in the clinical practice. Due to the large disagreement with previous immunoassays, and to the enlarged panel of measurable steroids, novel and robust reference intervals (RIs) need to be established. Steroid circulating levels are known to be influenced by several physio-pathological factors, such as age, gender, stress and metabolic status. Therefore, generating unbi...

Endocrine clinical practice strongly relies on normative data for the assessment of hormonal imbalance. However, the generation of robust steroids reference intervals (RIs) remains a challenge. As the steroids circulating levels are influenced by many procedural aspects related to blood collection (time, fasting state) and physio-pathological factors, such as age, sex, stress and metabolic status, the need for partitioning RIs is mandatory. Furthermore, unbiased healthy, drug-...

Steroid testing has a central role in clinical decision-making and in research studies on diseases such as hypercortisolisms, female hyperandrogenism, male hypogonadism or inborn disorders of steroid synthesis. Recently, liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) proved its superiority to routine immunoassays (IA) in accurately and sensitively measuring low level steroids. However, the replacement of automated IA with LC–MS/MS platforms is limited...

Background: Excess testosterone in PCOS is accompanied by increased levels of other ovarian and adrenal androgens and precursors. Recently, 11-oxygenated adrenal androgens have been postulated as major components of the circulating androgen pool in PCOS. Obesity is strictly connected with androgen excess and with the derangement of hormone circadian rhythmicity. To date, it has not been clarified whether hyperandrogenism in PCOS, either complicated by obesity or not, is accomp...

Low testosterone (T) levels are often found in obese men with metabolic abnormalities, however the mechanism underling this condition is unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of clomiphene citrate (CC) in increasing T levels and improving metabolic control in hypogonadal obese men with IGT or DM2. A randomized cross-over double blind controlled study was conducted in twenty obese hypogonadal caucasian men, mean age 47 ys, classified in IGT (n=11) or ...

Though LC-MS/MS is replacing immunoassays for major glucocorticoids and androgens routine assessment, the measurement of other sex steroids and precursors is still challenging and available only in experienced research laboratories. Our aim was to develop a simple-prep and rapid 2D-LC-MS/MS method for the simultaneous measurement of estrone (E1), estradiol (E2), dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and 17OHpregnenolone.Serum volumes of 300ul were spiked with intern...

Introduction: Clinical and laboratory hyperandrogenisms indistinctly contribute to PCOS diagnosis; however, they differ in hormonal and metabolic correlates and require proper therapeutic strategies. Circulating biomarkers of hirsutism were not identified so far, with elevated testosterone being observed only in half of hirsute patients. Reasons for such inconsistencies possibly relies in previously used immunoassays, nowadays recognized as not adequate because of poor reliabi...

Background: human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infection is strongly associated to erectile dysfunction (ED) in men. Preliminary data suggests that ED is poorly associated with serum T in HIV+ men.Aim: To investigate in HIV-infected men the relationship between sexual function as assessed by the validated International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-15) and T deficiency using Liquid Chromatography-tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS).<p class="abste...

The comprehension of the network of metabolic processes may help the understanding of the molecular pathways driving obesity and related complications. However this is a hard task due to the large number of actors and their complex interplay. We aimed at exploring by targeted metabolomic the circulating metabolite profile in lean (NW, n=42; BMI: 18.5–24.9 kg/m2) and age-matched overweight/obese (OB, n=37, BMI≥25.0 kg/m2), drug...