Endocrine Abstracts

Levothyroxine suppression therapy, i.e. keeping the TSH value below 0.3 mIU/l with the aim to reduce the total thyroidal tissue or nodule volume, is an arguable and controversial issue not only due to the effect upon nodule volume but also because of the extent of necessary suppression, the effect of incomplete suppression, long-time therapeutic effects and risk of cardiovascular problems and osteoporosis.The incidence of nodular alterations rises with a...

Introduction: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine disorder in women of reproductive age causing symptoms that can lead to depression and reduced health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Associations of depression and HRQoL indices with hormonal and metabolic PCOS features have not been adequately studied.Methods/design: Thirty-seven premenopausal women (age: 28±6.4 years; BMI: 28.3±7.2 kg/m2) with PCOS accord...

Glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide (GIP) contributes to incretin effect of insulin secretion which is impaired in type 2 diabetes mellitus. The aim of this study was to develop a simple meal test for evaluation of GIP secretion and action and to examine GIP changes in type 2 diabetic patients. Seventeen type 2 diabetic patients, 10 obese non-diabetic and 17 non-obese control persons have been examined before and after 30, 60 and 90 min stimulation by meal test. In a mixe...

Introduction: Obese men and women still show their sex-specific fat accumulation. Not only does fat distribution differ between the sexes after puberty, but the dynamics of fat cell size and fat metabolism differ as well. While there is reliable evidence that pubertal sex steroids induce a sex-specific fat distribution with preferential abdominal/visceral fat accumulation in males and preferential gluteofemoral fat accumulation in females, later in life a number of paradoxes o...

The 5α-reductase is one of the enzyme of steroid synthesis and founded in two isoformes. Two distinct 5α-reductase isoenzymes, type I and type II, are found across mammalian species. Each of these isoenzymes is differentially expressed in tissues and during distinct developmental stages and also in different species. The 5α-reductase is enzyme responsible for the reduction of testosterone to dihydrostestosterone, progesterone to dihydroprogesterone and deoxycort...

Introduction: Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is the most common cause of balding in men. AGA is the risk factor of cardiovascular diseases, glucose metabolism disorders and also the risk of benign prostate hyperplasia and prostate carcinoma.Methods: A group of 26 men (mean age: 31 years, mean BMI 25.58), in which premature hair loss begun before 30 years of age was involved in the present study. In all individuals, their hormonal profile involving total tes...

Introduction: Gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) quantitatively detects a large number of steroids at one time in a single serum sample. Most studies of subclinical hypercortisolism in adrenal incidentalomas have focused on detection of a few steroids like cortisol, DHEA/S, androstenedione, testosterone. We used GC-MS/MS to quantify 91 steroids in patients with adrenal incidentalomas to search for the most reliable marker of subclinical hypercortisolism.</p...

Dehydroepiandrosterone is the most abundant steroid hormone circulating in the human body, we focused on its 7-hydroxylated derivatives. Many observations in rodents have demonstrated the anti-inflammatory and immune modulating activity of 7β-hydroxy-androst-5-enes, and on the basis of these experiments androst-5-ene-3β,7β,17β-triol is considered as a potential agent in the treatment of autoimmune diseases. In contrast to the fairly abundant information on ...

Abstract: Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is the most powerful naturally occurring androgen with three to six times higher biopotency than testosterone. Time onset of benign prostatic hyperplasia and alopecia in middle life could be the result of an imbalance between androgens. The decline of testosterone during lifespan is well known, controversial data can be found concerning the age dependence of DHT levels. We analysed the levels of testosterone, dihydrotestosterone and SHBG fro...

Introduction: The influence of steroid hormones on food intake is well described. However, there are only a few studies on the effect of food intake on steroid levels.Methods: The study involved eight non-smoker women (average age 29.48±2.99 years; average BMI 21.3±1.3 kg/m2); they did not use any kind of medication affecting steroidogenesis. We analysed the influence of four various stimuli on the levels of steroid hormones and mela...