Endocrine Abstracts

The androgen receptor (AR) function is inhibited by endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) such as DDT and DDE leading to problems in embryonic development and negative health outcomes for adults. EDCs may bind in the steroid binding pocket and disrupt AR function by leading to altered receptor conformations. However, this may not be the only way EDCs interfere with the receptor. Estébanez-Perpiñá et al identified binding function 3 (BF3) as a surface bi...

Introduction: Galactorrhea is a common symptom of raised prolactin irrespective of cause of hyperprolactinemia. Whereas pituitary prolactinoma is the commonest cause, there are many other causes of increased prolactin including chest wall injuries or chest surgery. Galactorrhea without prolactin increase has been reported as well. We describe a case of galactorrhea following thoracoscopic resection of schwannoma from apex of left hemithorax.Clinical Case...

Proteomics provides an avenue to understand the interaction between the functional pathways within a cell and its environmental milieu, independent of any changes at the RNA level. There are only a few studies in thyroid diseases using proteomics; variability in specimen content in fibrous versus follicular tissue plus the presence of other types of cells (blood, lymphatic) makes difficult to apply global proteomic to surgery pieces; commercial cell-lines of thyroid cancer wer...

Pendred syndrome is an autosomal recessive disorder with congenital-sensorineural deafness and goiter due to mutations in SLC26A4, that encodes a transmembrane protein, Pendrin. In thyrocytes, Pendrin is proposed to act at the apical pole to transport intracellular iodide into the follicular lumen.A Galician Pendred compound heterozygous patient was studied; a c.297delT in exon 3 and a new splicing-mutation c.416-1G<A were found, introducing p...

Short Synacthen test (SST) is performed to exclude adrenal insufficiency; it’s frequently used for investigations of hyponatremia to rule out adrenal insufficiency as a possible cause. However the cost of Synacthen® (tetracosactide) 250 μg in 1 ml has increased from £14.63 to £228.55 for box of 5 A. (15-fold rise in price). This price hike needs to be taken into considerations when ordering SST. The objective of this retrospective audit was ...

Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), the most frequent thyroid cancer, has low proliferation but no apoptosis, presenting frequent lymph-node metastasis (Ordonez et al., 2004).SMAD3 has two opposite phosphorylation sites: the TGF-βRI–induced C-terminal Serine SMAD3 phosphorylation and the phosphorylation induced by CDK2 (T8, T179 and S213) and ERK (T179, S204, S208) (Wang et al. 2005, Matsuura et al. 2005).<p class=...

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune, heterogenous disease caused by immune-mediated destruction of insulin-producing β-cells in the pancreas. The only approved treatment strategies are exogenous insulin replacement therapy and islet transplantation. Leading experimental approaches have focussed on suppression and/or modulation of the immune system. However, efforts to increase β-cell survival are also of great interest. Recent studies in our lab have identified ne...

Fasting produces a rapid reduction of the activity of the central arm of the hypothalamic–pituitary–thyroid (HPT) axis, with a drop in biosynthesis of thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH) in periventricular and medial parvocellular neurons of the paraventricular nucleus (PVN), and decreased TRH release into the pituitary portal capillaries. These events contribute to fasting-induced suppression of serum thyroid hormone levels, an adaptive mechanism to conserve energy....

Background: Neuroendocrine tumor (NET) metastases to the heart are found in 1-4% of NET patients and have been reported primarily in the form of individual cases. We investigated the incidence, clinical characteristics, imaging features, and outcomes of NET patients with cardiac metastases on 68Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT.Methods: The medical records of 406 neuroendocrine tumor patients who underwent 68Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT for their clinical c...

Prenatal and postnatal environment can regulate gene expression through multiple epigenetic mechanisms, being DNA methylation among the most relevant. Metabolic and reproductive function may be modified by this mechanism. Sons born to women with PCOS show altered markers of metabolic and reproductive function during childhood and adulthood. However, these functions have not been studied during puberty. The aim of the present study was to assess the global methylation pattern a...