Endocrine Abstracts

Osteoporosis is an emerging medical and socioeconomic problem leading to fragility fractures, loss of mobility, chronic pain and cost to the individual and society. Diagnosis is often established only after fracture, although modern techniques exist to make the diagnosis early on where specific therapy is possible. Apart from calcium and vitamin D supplementation and lifestyle counseling, bisphosphonates have become the mainstay of therapy. However, long-term adherence with bi...

Osteoclasts are derived from macrophagic/monocytic lineage cells and represent differentiated, multinucleated cells specialized in resorbing bone. An increased number and activity of osteoclasts is the hallmark of various bone diseases, including osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and skeletal metastases. Recently, receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL) has been identified as the stem cell factor for osteoclasts. RANKL promotes osteoclast formation, funct...

Lorenz C Hofbauer, Germany AbstractThe European Journal of Endocrinology Prize is awarded to a candidate who has significantly contributed to the advancement of the knowledge in the field of endocrinology through publication. This year’s recipient is Dr Lorenz Hofbauer. The prize will be presented as part of the ECE 2010 opening ceremony where Dr Hofbauer will deliver his lecture. Dr Hofbau...

Metabolic changes in Type-2 Diabetes-Mellitus (T2DM) make patients more prone to develop osteoporosis and delayed bone healing. We hypothesize that microRNAs could be involved in the underlying mechanism and used as biomarkers in this context. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed microRNAs in samples from Zucker Diabetic Fatty (ZDF) rats, a T2DM model with reduced bone healing and bone mass. 11-week-old male ZDF and wildtype rats with a femur subcritical defect were treated wi...

Glucocorticoids (GC) are one of the most potent anti-inflammatory pharmacological agents. However, owing to their pleiotropic nature, their clinical effectiveness is frequently limited by their deleterious off-target effects. Frequently, metabolic abnormalities arise from GC excess involving the development of dyslipidaemia, insulin resistance and muscle atrophy as well as excessive fat accumulation in both white adipose tissue (WAT) and the liver. In addition, suppressed ther...

Despite their therapeutic effectiveness, glucocorticoids’ (GC) clinical usage is frequently limited due to the deleterious metabolic effects. GC-induced obesity arises from excessive fat accumulation in white adipose tissue (WAT) as well as suppressed thermogenic capacity in brown adipose tissue (BAT). Since the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) plays a fundamental role in adipose tissue biology, we examined the interaction between GCs and SNS signaling in the adipose orga...

PARADIGHM is an actively recruiting, prospective, observational registry (NCT01922440/EUPAS16927). The primary objective is to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of recombinant human parathyroid hormone, rhPTH(1-84), treatment in patients with chronic hypoparathyroidism under routine clinical care. The secondary objective is tocharacterize the clinical course of chronic hypoparathyroidism under conditions of routine clinical practice. At enrollment, registry inclusion crite...