Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Medullary thyroid cancer arises from the calcitonin-secreting parafollicular C cells and consists of a spectrum of disease that ranges from extremely indolent tumours, where patients may survive for many years with a large tumor burden, to aggressive types associated with a high mortality rate. The objective of our study is to evaluate the prognostic factors and outcomes of patients diagnosed with medullary thyroid cancer in a homogenous population, and to examin...

Introduction: Familial glucocorticoid deficiency (FGD) is a rare autosomal recessive disease characterised by ACTH resistance and isolated glucocorticoid deficiency. Mutations of ACTH receptor, known as melanocortin-2 receptor (MC2R), and melanocortin-2 receptor accessory protein (MRAP) account for approximately 25 and 15 to 20% of cases respectively. To date there is no strong evidence that heterozygous carriers have abnormal cortisol secretion.Case: We...

Cytosolic calcium signalling controls a vast number of cellular functions, such as contraction, secretion, cell growth and cell division. The increase of [Ca2+]i evoked by G-protein coupled receptor activation has two closely related components, i.e. the rapid phase of inositol 1,4,5-triphosphate-mediated Ca2+ release from ER stores, and followed by Ca2+ entry through store-operated channels (SOCs) in plasma membrane. Orai and STIM p...