Endocrine Abstracts

The endogenous thyroid hormone derivative 3-iodothyronamine (T1AM), and its metabolite 3-iodothyroacetic acid (TA1) are known to stimulate learning and induce hyperalgesia in mice. Recently, it has been demonstrated that exogenous T1AM is able to rescue synaptic impairment after transient ischemia in the entorhinal cortex (EC), a brain area crucially involved in learning and memory, and early affected during Alzheimer’s disease. However, i...

A 50-year-old lady presented with fatigue, tiredness and constipation, has more than twenty years history of hypercalcemia. She was clinically and biochemically diagnosed as familial hypocalciuric hypercalcemia with high calcium, normal parathormone, low urinary calcium, low fractional excretion of calcium, positive family history. Genetic confirmation was done by positive molecular genetic analysis of CASR gene. She has persistent high calcium level ranging between 2.8 and 3....

Introduction: Hormone-producing pituitary cell lineages derive from SOX2+ embryonic precursors. These cells maintain multipotency into early postnatal life, acting as the resident population of pituitary stem cells (PSCs) and contributing extensively to all the endocrine cell lineages. Additionally, paracrine signalling from PSCs is important for cell proliferation of neighbouring progenitors (PMC7803373). It is not known if SOX2+ PSCs are involved in the regulation of additio...

Thyroid hormone (TH) synthesis requires iodine, a scarce element whose recycling is mediated by DEHAL1 through deiodination of iodotyrosines MIT and DIT. In humans, DEHAL1 defects lead to severe congenital hypothyroidism (CH) non-detected by neonatal screening programs, which involves the risk of mental retardation in infants. The timing for establishment of this hypothyroidism remains unknown, but environmental iodine deficiency may represent a triggering factor. Whi...

Thyroid hormone (T3) is mostly produced in peripheral tissues by thyroxine (T4) deiodination, and its functional effects are directly related to tissue concentration, which is quite difficult to assay by conventional immunological methods. We report a novel technique, based on tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) coupled to HPLC, which was used in left ventricular myocardium obtained from rat and human hearts.Samples were homogenized in...

Serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (25OHD) is considered the most reliable marker of vitamin D status. Adequate levels 25OHD of are necessary for pleiotropic effects of vitamin D, either skeletal or extra-skeletal. Traditional assays based on immunoassay often show an unsatisfactory accuracy and sensibility. A valuable alternative is Tandem Mass Spectrometry coupled to High Performances Liquid Chromatography (HPLC-MS-MS), that offers a good quantification accuracy, as the contribution...

In March 2020, the infection due to COVID-19 spread as a pandemic emergence showing a mutable phenotype ranging from asymptomatic to lethal severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Among multiple biological and environmental investigated factors, vitamin D status was proposed as a credible candidate, since hypovitaminosis D could be identified as a modifiable risk factor and a potential tool in SARS-CoV-2 ...

Adult-onset hypothyroidism is associated with cognitive dysfunction, and a significant fraction of hypothyroid patients still shows persistent disturbances despite standard T4 replacement therapy. Experimental results showed that tissue levels of T4 metabolites, particularly T1AM, are decreased in hypothyroidism and remain low after T4 replacement. Thyroid hormones are important for the promotion of neurogenesis and neuron migration to different areas of the cerebral cortex, i...

The pituitary gland is a critical endocrine organ regulating multiple essential physiological processes including growth, reproduction, metabolism and the stress response. Hormone-producing pituitary cell lineages are derived from a population of embryonic precursors expressing the transcription factor SOX2. These cells maintain multipotency into early postnatal life, acting as the resident population of pituitary stem cells (PSCs) and contributing to all the endocrine cell li...

Hypertension or elevated blood pressure (BP) is quantitatively the most important risk factor for development of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), whereas aldosterone contributes significantly in the development and severity of hypertension. Interestingly, parathyroid hormone (PTH) stimulates aldosterone synthesis by regulating renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS). Conversely, RAAS controls PTH secretion, as angiotensin receptor is expressed by human parathyroid tissues a...