Endocrine Abstracts

Neuroendocrine balance of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) is a critical component in the control of metabolic homeostasis, and its dysregulation can contribute to severe pathologies, like obesity, where the HPA is significantly altered at the central and systemic levels. Somatostatin and cortistatin have been shown to reduce circulating ACTH and glucocorticoid-levels in rodents and humans in vivo. However, to date, no studies have thoroughly investigated and compa...

Somatostatin (SST), Cortistatin (CORT), ghrelin, and their corresponding receptors (ssts and GHS-R) are closely interrelated systems involved in the regulation of essential hormones for metabolic homeostasis, like insulin, whose release is inhibited by SST/CORT and stimulated by ghrelin. To investigate the underlying mechanisms of this insulin regulation, we analyzed the expression of such systems at pancreatic level in wild type (WT) and CORT knock-out mice (CORT-KO) under bo...

The G protein-coupled (GPCR) somatostatin receptor sst2 transduces the majority of somatostatin actions, including inhibition of hormone and growth factor secretion, cell survival and angiogenesis. Sst2 agonists such as octreotide are widely used for the treatment and diagnostic of human neuroendocrine tumors that frequently over-express sst2. To initiate its inhibitory signalling pathways, sst2 engages, in addition to G protein subunits, different protein partners such as pho...

Obestatin is a 23-amino acid amidated peptide that is encoded by the ghrelin gene and was therefore presumed to have regulatory effects on pituitary. However, the limited set of studies performed hitherto suggests that obestatin has no major effect on hormone secretion, in vivo or in vitro, from rodent pituitary, whereas no comparable data is still available on primates. Here, primary pituitary cell cultures from a non-human primate (baboon; Papio anubis) served ...

It is now widely accepted that the kisspeptins (kps) and their receptor kiss1r play an essential role in the neuroendocrine regulation of the reproductive axis by stimulating hypothalamic GnRH secretion. However, kiss1 and kiss1r expression in tissues distinct from, but related to, the hypothalamus, prompted us to propose that these molecules may exert regulatory functions in additional places of the neuroendocrine system, such as the pituitary and two of its phy...

Somatostatin (SST)-system is a pleiotropic hormonal system composed by several ligands/receptors that is involved in the regulation of multiple pathophysiological functions. Specifically, certain components of the SST-system are dysregulated in several endocrine-related cancer types compared to control tissues, wherein these alterations seem to influence their development/progression. However, the presence and functional role of neuronostatin (NST) and its putative G-protein c...

Prostate cancer (PCa) is a complex and heterogeneous cancer that progresses from slow-growing, tissue-confined lesions, to highly aggressive and metastatic forms. Among the different processes involved in this progression, dysregulation of the alternative splicing mechanism, and, particularly, the generation of the spliced androgen receptor variant-7 (ARv7), plays a critical role in the pharmacological resistance of PCa patients (i.e. Abiraterone or Enzalutamide). In this cont...

Background: Somatostatin (SST)/Cortistatin (CORT) system is a complex hormonal axis involved in the progression of several tumor types. However, its role has not been explored in prostate cancer (PCa), one of the most common type among men.Objectives: We aimed to investigate the presence and the pathophysiological role of SST/CORT in PCa.Methods: We analysed functional parameters in response to SST and CORT and to CORT-silencing in...