Endocrine Abstracts

Addison’s disease is a rare disorder and mostly due to an immune-mediated adrenal destruction similar to the organ specific loss of function in autoimmune hypothyroidism in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis or type 1 diabetes. Adrenal insufficiency occurs thereby as isolated disease or is accompanied by other autoimmune disorders forming the autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome (mostly APS2). A major problem of Addison’s disease is that the diagnosis is often late or may be ...

Autoimmunity has been associated with maternal–fetal microchimerism both in animal models and in human observational studies. The concept has been studied in various model systems, organ involvements and epidemiological studies. The sensitivity to detect such microchimers (fetal cells in maternal tissue: fetal–maternal microchimerism, maternal–fetal: maternal cells in a child’s compartment) varies with the methods applied and the reproducibility of detectio...

We investigated the SNP rs16944 in German type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients and healthy controls (HC) and correlated the findings with concentrations of VD metabolites.Methods: 504 T2D patients and 447 HC were genotyped by a Taqman assay. Additionally 25(OH)D3 and 1,25(OH)2D3 plasma levels of 76 T2D patients and 267 HC were measured by radioimmunoassay.Results: The AA genotype was significantly less fr...

Introduction: Adrenal crises are potentially life-threatening complications in patients with adrenal insufficiency (AI). Our objective was to investigate the frequency of adrenal crises in patients with different forms of AI in the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), one of the largest German Health Insurance providers, covering more than 12% of the German population.Design: The Statutory Health Insurance (SHI) database of the TK was analysed for diagnostic cod...

Introduction: Adrenal crisis is a potentially life-threatening complication in primary adrenal failure. Our objective was to investigate the frequency of adrenal crises in patients with autoimmune Addison’s disease (AD) in the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), one of the largest German Health Insurance providers, that covers more than 10% of the German population.Design: The Statutory Health Insurance (SHI) database of the TK was analysed for diagnostic ...

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients have a high cardiovascular risk due to vascular inflammation and dyslipidaemia. Furthermore vitamin D (VD) deficiency is highly prevalent. Our aim was to elucidate the role of fatty acid receptors in inflammatory pathways and their regulation by VD. We therefore examined the VD effect on gene expression of Arachidonate 5-lipoxygenase (ALOX-5) and Sphingosine-1-phospate receptors (S1PR1 and S1PR2) in primary isolated monocytes of T2D patients and ...

Introduction: Several studies have shown a reduced quality of life (QoL) in patients with Addison’s disease (AD). However, by now there are no data investigating the changes of QoL over a long-term course. Adrenal crises (AC) are frequent and potentially life-threatening complications in patients with AD. Since no reliable laboratory indicator can predict impending crises it is difficult to detect patients at increased risk. The purpose of this study was to test whether t...

Introduction: Hypercholesterolemia is frequently found in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Cholesterol is metabolized from 7-dehydrocholesterol by 7-dehydrocholesterol reductase (DHCR7) from 7-dehydrocholesterol, a precursor of pre-vitamin D3. Therefore single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the DHCR7 gene could regulate cholesterol levels and concentrations of vitamin D metabolites (25(OH)D3 or 1,25(OH)2D3). For this purpose we investiga...

A 34-year-old refugee from Somalia was referred because of a suspected DSD. Due to ambiguous, but predominantly female external genitalia at birth he was raised as a girl, whereas his subjective gender identity has always been male. Puberty led to a significant virilization of the body but only to a very limited virilization of the external genitalia. The patient presented himself with an undoubtedly male-type body composition. External genitalia were now predominantly male wi...

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) is caused by a process of altered humoral and cellular immunity, resulting in the destruction of insulin-producing cells. VD(25(OH)D3) insufficiency is implied as risk factor for T1D, while VD substitution in infantry is associated with a reduced T1D incidence. In T1D daily insulin injection is required for a stable glucose homeostasis and insulin demand rises by a higher Body Mass Index (BMI). Today there are no studies investigating ...