Endocrine Abstracts

In men, aging is associated with a gradual and progressive decline in serum testosterone (T) levels, such that an increasing proportion of aging men have T levels below the normal range in young men, i.e. in the hypogonadal range. The age-related de-cline T levels is associated with alterations in body composition (decreasing lean and increasing fat mass), decreases in muscle mass and strength, bone mineral density (BMD), sexual function, and cognitive function, and depressed ...

Fragile bone fractures due to deteriorating bone quality are increased in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. This study aimed to measure serum levels of pentosidine and adipocytokines, e.g. adiponectin and leptin, and compare between those biochemical markers and bone mineral density of lumber in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Serum concentration of adiponectin, leptin and pentosidine was measured in 19 type 2 diabetic patients (mean age 65.9+2.3 years) and 13 no...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease that results in generalized bone loss and increased fracture risk. Although glucocorticoids are frequently prescribed for the symptomatic management of inflammatory disorders such as RA, extended glucocorticoid exposure is the leading cause of osteoporosis and leaves patients at a high risk of fracture. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of monthly oral minodronate for the treatment of osteop...

Hypophosphatasia (HPP) is an inherited skeletal disease characterized by defective bone mineralization due to a deficiency in tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (TNALP). Patients with the severe infantile form of HPP have a poor prognosis that often results in high mortality by one year. Asfotase alfa is an approved therapy for HPP, while requires chronic injections to maintain efficacy. To develop a one-time gene therapy for HPP, we examined the safety and efficacy of AA...

Objectives: Hypophosphatasia (HPP) is an inborn error of metabolism resulting from loss of function mutations in the tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (TNAP) gene. Asfotase alfa is an approved enzyme replacement therapy for HPP, while effective, it requires chronic multiple injections up to 6 times per week. We have developed a one-time gene therapy drug (ARU-2801: an adeno-associated viral vector expressing TNAP-D10) for HPP and examined the safety and effica...

Involvement of BMP-3b (also called GDF-10) in osteogenesis, embryogenesis and adipogenesis has been reported to date. However, the functional receptors and intracellular signaling of BMP-3b have yet to be determined. In the present study, we studied the cellular mechanism of BMP-3b in osteoblast differentiation using mouse myoblastic C2C12 cells, which show osteoblasitc differentiation in response to osteogenetic BMP ligands. BMP-3b stimulated activin/TGF-β-responsive pro...

Introduction: According to the guideline for medical treatment of Graves’ disease by the Japan Thyroid Association in 2011, discontinuation of antithyroid drug is recommended when normal thyroid functions have been maintained for a certain period (≥6 months) after treatment with a minimum maintenance dose (mentioned below). We prospectively studied the remission rates in the patients with Graves’ disease.Methods: The subjects were 108 pat...

Objective: Subacute thyroiditis (SAT) is a transient inflammatory disease of the thyroid. As we hypothesized that clinical characteristics of SAT were changing recent years, we evaluated data of our patients.Patients and methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 192 patients (45 men and 147 women) with SAT who visited our hospital from 1990 to 2009. We analyzed these records dividing into two groups by decade, i.e. the first 10 years (1...

Background: Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is known as the most common histological subtype of thyroid carcinoma. The prognosis of PTC is generally favorable. However, small number of patients with PTC progressed with distant metastasis and invasion to adjacent organs. New diagnostic tool for early detection of PTC with poor outcome is desired. We previously reported that autoantibody to WD repeat domain 1 (AWA) in the serum was associated with the existence of undifferenti...

Background and objective: Sleep disorders (SDs) are classified into subjective and objective SDs, and subjective SDs are directly related to quality of life. According to previous studies, Graves’ disease (GD) causes SDs, especially insomnia. However, the characteristics of subjective SDs and its clinical course after hyperthyroidism normalization remain unclear. Additionally, the factors involved in subjective SDs with hyperthyroidism in GD remain unclear. Hyperthyroidis...