Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: MEN-1 is a rare autosomal dominant familial cancer syndrome characterized by involvement of parathyroid glands, enteropancreatic endocrine tissues and anterior pituitary gland. This disease is linked to germline mutations in the MEN1 gene (more than 460 described), whose identification allows the familial genetic counselling. Here we describe a novel germinal mutation in exon 10 of the MEN1 gene identified in an Italian family.Case Report: ...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is often diagnosed at late stage or metastatic condition. Surgical resection is considered treatment of choice and other treatment options include chemoembolization, radiofrequency ablation and photodynamic therapy. We evaluated the expression levels of the 5 somatostatin receptors (SSTRs) in 23 biopsies of HCC patients and also mTOR, p70S6K and 4eBP1 in HuH-7 and HepG2 and investigated the in vitro effect of somatostatin analogs (SA) and ...

Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy characterized by a good prognosis. However, the subgroup of poorly differentiated thyroid carcinomas (PDTCs) includes neoplasia highly aggressive and scarcely responsive to currently available therapies.Site-selective cAMP analogs are able to inhibit the growth of poorly differentiated solid tumors and may represent valuable candidates for the therapy of PDTCs.We evaluated the ...

Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a neuroendocrine tumor highly resistant to chemo-and radiotherapy. Since several reports showed that cAMP has an antiproliferative effect on different types of solid tumors both in vitro and in vivo, we evaluated the potential anti-neoplastic activity of cAMP analogues (8-Cl-cAMP and the equimolar combination of 8-PIP-cAMP and 8-HA-cAMP) in two MTC cell lines (TT and MZ-CRC-1 that harbor C634W and M918T RET mutations, respecti...

Activation of the Ras/ERK pathway and stimulation of proliferation by integrins in thyroid cells requires CaMKII activation. To date, whether this role of CaMKII is a general mechanism or is restricted to integrin signalling is unknown. As oncogenic activation of the Ras/ERK pathway by mutated Ras, RET/PTC and Trk is frequent in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), we investigated the expression and activation level of CaMKII in PTC primary culture and in stable cell lines.<...

Introduction: Neuroendocrine tumors (NET) are rare tumors originating from various types of neuroendocrine cells. The somatostatin receptor type 2 (sst2) is expressed in NET cells and is a target for therapy with somatostatin analogues.Epigenetic changes including methylation of DNA at CpG dinucleotides, and particularly in the promoter region of genes can inhibit transcription. Methylation can be inhibited by cytidine analogues such as 5-aza-...

Increasing evidence has recently accumulated suggesting that IGF1 system is involved in the regulation of longevity. While in animal models alterations of IGF1 signalling increase life expectancy, in humans there are contradictory data. Centenarians are an extraordinary model to study human longevity, however, they present a number of drawbacks: rarity, frailty due to extreme age and lack of a control group of the same age. The availability of an age-matched control group is c...

By direct measurement of muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) we previously demonstrated a markedly decreased adrenergic tone in newly diagnosed acromegalic patients. The present study was aimed at confirming this finding in a larger group of patients and establishing the pathophysiological role of insulin resistance, GH and IGF1 levels, circulating leptin and extracellular water (ECW) in this abnormality.Study design: Fifteen de novo patients...