Endocrine Abstracts

Background: It has recently been recognized that thyroid hormones may rapidly generate biological responses by nongenomic mechanisms that are unaffected by inhibitors of transcription and translation. The signal transduction pathways for these effects are just beginning to be defined.Aim: To examine the specific pathway via which T3 can activate Akt in pancreatic beta cells and to understand further the possible implication of a nongenomic action of T3 i...

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is showing a rapid and continuous evolution in terms of new waves, the spread of variants and the evidence of reinfections. The growing heterogeneity of clinical presentation requires the identification of underlying pathogenic mechanisms to allow a better risk stratification. Previous studies analysed the role of sex hormones in disease severity demonstrating in male patients the association of...

Background: The fourth type of Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia (MEN) is a rare variant of MEN presenting a MEN1-like phenotype and originating from a germline mutation in CDKN1B. However, due to the small number of cases documented in literature, the peculiar clinical features of MEN4 are still largely unknown, and clear indications about the clinical management of these patients are currently lacking. In order to enlarge our knowledge on MEN4 and to better typify the clinical fe...

It is known that adult growth hormone deficiency (GHD) is associated with oxidative stress (OS): both GH and IGF-1 exert antioxidant functions. OS is in turn related to systemic inflammation and cardiovascular/oncological risk. Discordant data concerning GH effects on antioxidants are reported. Moreover, no data are available in partial GHD, which can induce cardiovascular alterations. To evaluate oxidative damage on macromolecules and systemic inflammation, 80 patients, studi...

Kallmann syndrome (KS) is characterized by hypogonadotropic hypogonadism and other non-reproductive disorders including smell deficiency due to olfactory bulb developmental abnormalities. The aim of our study was to evaluate retrospectively the role of MRI in patients with clinical diagnosis of KS, searching for any abnormalities of the brain structures involved.Methods: We evaluated 25 KS pts (14–32 years, 4F, 21 M). KS cases were classified as hyp...

Background: Mitotane,(o,p’-DDD)is a compound with potent adrenotoxic effect and is able to block cortisol synthesis by inhibiting 11β-hydroxylation and cholesterol chain cleavage. For these reasons, mitotane was widely used in the treatment of adrenocortical cancer. Nevertheless the biological mechanism induced by these treatments in this cancer cells remain unknown.Aim: To study whether the o,p’-DDD could increase the susceptibility to th...

Background: The recently discovered myokin Irisin, a peptide originated by a proteolytic cleavage of the transmembrane protein fibronectin type III domain containing 5 (FNDC5) whose expression is induced by exercise and/or by increasing peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-γ co-activator 1α (PGC-1α), has been considered a prognostic factor in Chronic Ischemic Cardiomyopathy and Acute Heart Failure. Nevertheless, no data are available on Irisin level...

Background: Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is the most frequent cause of diabetes of the exocrine pancreas (DEP). Although the specific alterations of DEP are not completely understood, individuals with DEP are considered affected by pancreatic endocrine insufficiency and treated with insulin. To investigate the functional alterations of DEP, we evaluated differences in glucose metabolism in patients with and without CP, classified according to their glucose tolerance (NGT, IGT, DM...

Background: Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a heritable disease of the connective tissues caused primarily by heterogeneous mutations in the genes encoding for type I collagen. Phenotypically, it is characterized by abnormal bone mineralization, tissue fragility, and skeletal deformities.Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the osteoclastogenic potential of unfractionated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from OI patients (mean ag...

Background: Obesity and in particular visceral adiposity has been related to low bone mineral density (BMD) and greater fracture risk. Subjects with Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) have lower amount of visceral fat than patients with simple obesity, however can develop osteoporosis. A strong relationship between inhibition of the osteoblast formation and induction of the adipocyte differentiation has been demonstrated. Inhibitors of osteoblastogenesis, such as Dickkopf-1 (DKK...