Endocrine Abstracts

The network paradigm is being increasingly used to describe the topology and dynamics of complex systems. The representation of protein structures as networks of interacting amino acids has in fact been used to investigate and elucidate complex phenomena such as protein folding and unfolding, protein stability, the role of structurally and functionally important residues, protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions and intra- and inter-protein communication and allosterism.</...

Introduction: Anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) and insulin-like factor 3 (INSL3) represent ovarian functional markers of granulosa and theca cells respectively. This study investigated AMH and INSL3 plasma levels in two groups of ovulatory or anovulatory women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and their relationship with ovarian morphology and androgen levels.Methods: AMH and INSL3 were measured in a cohort of 57 patients with PCOS classified in two gro...

The aim of this epidemiologic study, performed in a wide population of high-school students in Northern Italy, was to obtain an unbiased estimate of the prevalence of hyperandrogenic states in adolescents and young females.2052 female students, aged 15–19 years, were consecutively contacted. 939/2052 (45.8%) refused to participate in the study, but 431 of the 939 non-participants (45.9%) agreed to fill out a brief questionnaire aimed to broadly asse...

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) has an early onset. However, its prevalence in the youngest age groups has not been assessed, mostly due to the poor specificity of the criteria for defining PCOS in adolescents, including the testosterone references generated only on adult women. Moreover, the current references for testosterone were mostly built by immunoassays, known to have poor accuracy. This study was aimed at defining androgen and pro-androgen reference intervals in 149 ...

The use of LC–MS/MS quantitative methods in clinical and research laboratories is becoming a well established reality that may overcome specificity and accuracy limits of immunoassays. Nevertheless, among different LC–MS/MS methods an agreement on the values that are to be considered normal or pathologic has not been reached yet, and this is mainly due to differences in LC–MS/MS methods, to the poor or absent availability of reference material and to the selecti...

Obesity is characterized by an increase of endocannabinoid circulating levels as anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonoyl-glycerol (2AG). Whether these lipids represent a biomarker of dysmetabolism or merely reflect the fat mass spill-over is still unclear. After generating rigorous, gender specific, plasma reference intervals by 2D-liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, we defined the 97.5thcentile of endocannabinoid distribution in the normal population as the cut-off ab...

A number of publications recently provided measurements of plasma ECs by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS), however the reported circulating levels in normal subjects are scattered in a very wide range of concentrations. A quantitative LC–MS/MS method for anandamide (AEA), palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), oleoylethanolamyde (OEA) and 2arachidonoyl-glycerol (2AG), chromatographically resolved by its inactive isomer 1AG, was validated in house....