Endocrine Abstracts

Hypoparathyroidism is characterised by parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels inadequate to maintain plasma calcium concentration within the normal range. Even if the conventional treatment with calcium supplements and active vitamin D analogues is usually able to maintain normocalcemia, episodic low plasma calcium, neuromuscular complaints, renal disease and gastric discomfort are not infrequent. 29 patients with post-surgical hypoparathyroidism were started on PTH 1–34 therap...

Introduction: Ultrasoundelastography (USE) evaluates the tissue elasticity according to the local tissue displacement after a small compression applied by an ultrasound transducer. This technique is based on the concept that a hard lesion is associated to a higher risk of malignancy. The USE has been recently applied for characterization of thyroid nodules. The aim of our preliminary study was to assess the validity of USE for screening benign and malignant thyroid nodules.</p...

Human type 2 deiodinase (hD2) regulates T3 production in placenta during trophoblast development. hD2 mRNA and protein levels are elevated only during the first trimester of gestation then becoming barely detectable. These variations are similar to those of chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a well-known marker of early gestation secreted by the cytotrophoblast. A peculiar promoter architecture of the gene encoding the alpha subunit of hCG allows a CRE-mediated synergism between cA...

Background Ghrelin stimulates cell proliferation in a number of tissues including pituitary. AMPK, a heterotrimer kinase enzyme, is an important sensor and regulator of cellular energy balance. We have shown that ghrelin can change AMPK activity in various tissues and this mechanism could play a role in its metabolic effects. AMPK has recently been established to strongly inhibit cell proliferation and tumorigenesis. We therefore hypothesised that ghrelin stimulates cell proli...

Background: Ghrelin stimulates cell proliferation in a number of tissues including pituitary. AMPK, a heterotrimer kinase enzyme, is an important sensor and regulator of cellular energy balance. We have shown that ghrelin can change AMPK activity in various tissues and this mechanism could play a role in its metabolic effects. AMPK has recently been established to strongly inhibit cell proliferation and tumorigenesis. We therefore hypothesised that ghrelin stimulates cell prol...

Background: Organ infiltration and metastasis are the only parameters defining malignancy of pancreatic endocrine tumors. Several studies had demonstrated the prognostic value of Ki-67 expression measured on histological sections obtained from the removed pancreatic endocrine tumors. We postulate that Ki-67 expression measured on fine needle aspiration cytology provides pre-operative indications of the malignancy of pancreatic endocrine tumors.Aim: Aims ...

Inhibins A and B, peptides belonging to TGF-ß superfamily, have an ubiquitous antagonist action on activin signalling. In thyroid gland, TGF-ß1 and activin mainly exert an inhibitory action on growth and function. In human thyroid, beside the presence of activin β subunits and its transductional elements (ActRI/II, SMAD), there is no evidence for α subunit expression, an essential component for inhibin A/B gathering (α-ßA/α-ßB), nor for ...

Background: Somatostatin analogues are very useful in the treatment of symptomatic neuroendocrine tumours, but effects on proliferation remain unclear. Overexpression of the proto-oncogene protein kinase Akt has been demonstrated in certain endocrine tumours, and activates downstream proteins including mTOR and p70S6K, which play a significant role in cell growth and proliferation. We have therefore explored the site of action of somatostatin in causing inhibition of prolifera...

Background: Klinefelter syndrome (KS) is the most common abnormality of sex chromosomes (47,XXY) and represents the first genetic cause of male infertility. Mechanisms leading to KS testis degeneration are still not completely defined but considered to be mainly the result of germ cells loss. In order to unravel the molecular basis of global testis dysfunction in KS patients, we performed a transcriptome analysis on testis biopsies obtained from six azoospermic non-mosaic KS p...