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Endocrine Abstracts (2022) 81 EP583 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.81.EP583

1University of Milan, Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, University of Milan, Milan, Italy; 2Maimonides Biomedical Research Institute of Cordoba (IMIBIC), Córdoba, Spain; 3University of Cordoba, Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, Córdoba, Spain; 4Reina Sofia University Hospital, Córdoba, Spain; 5Endocrinology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy; 6UKE-University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, I. Medical Department, Hamburg, Germany; 7CIBER Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBERobn), Cordoba, Spain


Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) represent a heterogeneous group of malignancies with increasing incidence worldwide, due in part to enhanced awareness and diagnosis improvements. Surgery is often effective for local disease, whereas disseminated or metastatic disease require pharmacological treatment, which is not always successful. Pancreatic (Pan-NETs) and pulmonary (Lung-NETs) neuroendocrine tumors frequently express somatostatin receptors (SSTs), providing the target for treatment with somatostatin analogs (SSAs), but a number of patients are irresponsive or become resistant to these drugs. In this context, the neuropeptide cortistatin (CST) a natural analogue of somatostatin with comparable affinity to SSTs has been highlighted as a potential endogenous anti-inflammatory player.

The aims of this study were: 1) to determine the effect of CST as compared with classic SSA on different functional parameters in Pan-NETs and in Lung-NETs cells models; 2) to characterize the somatostatin/CST/SSTs phenotype on a set of recently stablished Pan-NETs cell models. To this purpose, we evaluate cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration, colony formation and intracellular signaling on Lung-NETs (UMC-11 and NCI-H727), classical (BON-1, QGP-1), and new Pan-NETs (NT-3, NT-18 LM) and Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Carcinoma (NT-38) cell lines. We tested different concentrations (1nM-1μM) of SSAs and CST and we observed a dose-dependent effect on cell proliferation and migration, in UMC-11 and NCI-H727 cell lines. A similar result was detected in BON-1 and QGP-1, but NT-3, NT-38, NT-18LM cell lines were less responsive. Each cell model displays a unique SST expression profile, which may underlie the differential functional responses observed. Thus, we are currently exploring the particular signaling pathways involved. Altogether, this study opens original avenues to explore novel therapeutical strategies with CST in NETs and to establish and characterize new Pan-NET cell models more precisely resembling human tumors.

Volume 81

European Congress of Endocrinology 2022

Milan, Italy
21 May 2022 - 24 May 2022

European Society of Endocrinology 

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