Endocrine Abstracts

Objectives: Glucocorticoids (GCs) are the first line therapy in moderate to severe, active thyroid eye disease (TED). While their beneficial immunosuppressive effects are well known, direct connective tissue effects are less characterized. The accumulation of extracellular matrix component hyaluronan (HA) and increased proliferation rate of fibroblasts are hallmarks connective tissue changes in TED. We examined the effect of methylprednisolone (MP), prednisolone (P), hydrocort...

Graves’ orbitopathy (GO) is a common complication of Graves’ disease (GD) which is often responding poorly to therapy. GO may develop before or together with, or during the course of GD. In an individual patient, the development of GO cannot be predicted. We assumed that orbital autoimmune activity is predictable using orbital 99mTc-labelled diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (99mTc-DTPA) SPECT. We aimed to determine whether any orbital autoimmune activity can be id...

Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) cells and immune cells can kill each other by death ligands. Death ligands induce apoptosis only in sensitive cells. The sensitivity to apoptosis is regulated in a complex and poorly understood manner. The aim of this study was to investigate the Fas ligand (FasL) and Tumor Necrosis Factor-Related Apoptosis Inducing Ligand (TRAIL) expression in PTC cells and tumor infiltrating immune cells. Twenty-six PTCs without and fifteen PTCs with cervical l...