Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a downstream effector of the PI3K/AKT pathway. It can be activated by diverse stimuli, such as growth factors, nutrients, energy, stress signals and signaling pathways such as PI3K, MAPK and AMPK, in order to control cell growth, proliferation and survival. The active form of mTOR (pmTOR) may form two distinct complexes: mTORC1 that activates S6K1 and 4EBP1 which are involved in mRNA translation; and mTORC2 that activates PKC...

Osteopontin (OPN) is a matricellular protein highly expressed in cancer cells, which is able to modulate tumorigenesis and metastasis in several malignancies, including follicular cell-derived thyroid cancers (TC). OPN is one of the gene products aberrantly expressed in TC, but the contribution of each OPN isoform (OPNi), named as OPNa, OPNb and OPNc, is currently unknown. This study aims to analyze the expression profile of OPNi in TC tissue samples, correlate its expression ...

Context: Telomerase promoter mutations (TERT) were recently described in follicular cell-derived thyroid carcinomas (FCDTC) and seem to be more prevalent in aggressive cancers.Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the frequency of TERT promoter mutations in thyroid lesions and to investigate the prognostic significance of such mutations in a large cohort of patients with differentiated thyroid carcinomas (DTC).<p class="abstext"...

Introduction: Diffuse lipomatosis of the thyroid is a very rare disease, characterized by extensive infiltration of thyroid parenchyma by mature adipose tissue. It is not accompanied by accumulation of amyloid fibrils.Clinical report: Male, 47 years old, followed in Endocrinology by hypothyroidism, since 13 years old, medicated with levothyroxine, with unremarkable growth and pshicomotor development. In 2002, thyroid echography showed a solid and heterog...

Thyroid cancer therapy is based on surgery followed by radioiodine treatment of tumor remnants and metastases. The incorporation of radioiodine by cancer cells is mediated by sodium iodide symporter (NIS), normally present in thyroid follicular cells’ membrane. We studied the expression of NIS in a series of 229 thyroid primary tumors using real time PCR and immunohistochemistry, and searched for possible associations between NIS expression and clinicopathological feature...