Endocrine Abstracts

We have shown that 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) receptor type 4 (5-HT4R) agonists stimulate aldosterone production in patients with aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA). Moreover, 5-HT-positive cells were observed in APA tissues and 5-HT4R mRNAs were markedly overexpressed in APAs in comparison with normal adrenals. All these results suggested that 5-HT produced by adrenal mast cells could be involved in the physiopathology of APAs. The aim of this work was to investigate the rol...

In the human adrenal gland, serotonin (5-HT), released by subcapsular mast cells stimulates corticosteroid secretion through activation of type 4 serotonin receptors (5-HT4R) positively coupled to cAMP/proteine kinase A (PKA) signaling pathway and calcium influx. The 5-HT4R is principally expressed in zona glomerulosa cells explaining why 5-HT strongly stimulates aldosterone production but only exerts a modest stimulatory action on cortisol. Interestingly, in primary pigmented...

Introduction: Adrenal pheochromocytomas have the same embryonic origin, i.e. the neural crest, as peripheral neuroblastic tumors such as ganglioneuromas, ganglioneuroblastomas and neuroblastomas. Ganglioneuromas are benign and silent tumors in that they usually do not secrete catecholamines in contrast to pheochromocytomas. Rarely, they can associate with pheochromocytomas to form composite tumors.Patients and methods: We have retrospectively studied sev...