Endocrine Abstracts

Corticotropinomas represent only a small fraction of all the cases of pituitary adenomas, yet they have the potential for great morbidity and mortality. Presenting clinically as Cushing’s disease (CD), corticotropinomas are characterized at the molecular level by resistance to glucocorticoid negative feedback, dysregulation of proteins controlling cell cycle progression, and overexpression of pathways that sustain overactive ACTH production and secretion. Until recently, ...

Patients suffering from low-grade chronic inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, diabetes and obesity have low plasma SHBG levels. These diseases are characterized among other features by high plasma IL1β levels. The aim of the present study is to explore whether IL1β could regulate hepatic SHBG production to account for low SHBG levels in these diseases. We provide evidence that daily IL1β treatment reduces SHBG production in HepG2 ...

The reason why obesity (a chronic low-grade inflammatory disease) is associated with low levels of sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) remains to be elucidated. In the present study we provide evidence that TNFα (a proinflammatory cytokine that increases with obesity) reduces SHBG production by human HepG2 hepatoblastoma cells. The effect of TNFα on human SHBG expression was mediated by NF-κB which causes the downregulation of HNF4α: a key SHBG transcriptio...

Introduction/aim: There is growing evidence to suggest that retinal neurodegeneration is an early event in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy (DR). Somatostatin (SST) has a neuroprotective action and we previously found a downregulation of SST associated with the hallmarks of retinal neurodegeneration (glial activation and apoptosis) in human retinas. The aim of the study was to test the hypothesis that SST is useful in preventing retinal neurodegeneration.<p class="...