Endocrine Abstracts

Pituitary dwarfism has been known for many decades, originally as a component of organic panhypopituitarism. GH for clinical use was purified by Maurice Raben from human cadaveric pituitaries and tested for the first time and with success in 1957 in a patient with childhood onset disease. Moreover, pivotal short term studies on the metabolic effects were performed in both healthy and hypopituitary adults. The concomitant introduction of imunnoassays for GH led to the introduct...

Breast development in boys and men, gynaecomastia, is a common condition. The incidence peaks three times through life: neonatally in the first weeks after birth; pubertally, usually around genital stage 3 to 4 and in adulthood with increasing incidence after the age of 50 years.Using a standardized diagnostic approach a cause for gynaecomastia developed in adulthood can be detected in the majority of men, and gynaecomastia may be the first presenting sy...

Transsphenoidal surgery is preferred as primary therapy for acromegaly, but cure or acceptable disease control with this modality is obtained in <60%, and in some cases surgery is not eligible. Second-line treatment with long-acting somatostatin analogues (SA) is successful in ~60%. This treatment offers tumor shrinkage in addition to lowering of GH and IGF-I in most patients. A potential concern is impairment of glucose tolerance due to the concomitant suppression of insu...

Objective: Growth hormone (GH) activity might be implicated in male reproductive function. One previous study has suggested significantly reduced semen quality in untreated acromegalic patients due to both reduced sperm counts and motility.Design and methods: A retrospective study comprising 10 uncontrolled hypogonadal acromegalic patients (median age 29y) who delivered semen for cryopreservation before initiation of testosterone therapy. Semen ...

Introduction: Gonadotropins from the pituitary gland are essential for testosterone production and spermatogenesis. However, little is known about semen quality in patients with adult onset gonadotropin insufficiency.Aim: To investigate semen quality in men with adult onset hypogonadotropic hypogonadism requiring testosterone replacement therapy.Patients and method: A single center study comprising all hypogonadal men with pituitar...

Background: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) and hypercortisolism associated with Cushing’s syndrome (CS) share clinical characteristics such as hypertension, dyslipidaemia, hyperglycaemia, and obesity. Several studies have recorded a relatively high prevalence of hypercortisolism in T2D, which may have therapeutic implications. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to assess the prevalence of hypercortisolism in T2D patients.Methods: Origina...

Introduction: A common genetic polymorphism in the GH receptor (GHR) is deletion of the entire exon 3 sequence (GHRd3 isoform). The GHRd3 isoform seems to be more sensitive with increased downstream GH signalling in activated exon 3 deleted receptor dimers (GHRd3/d3) compared to full length receptor dimers (GHRfl/fl). Presence of the GHRd3 isoform might be associated to pre- and postnatal growth and pubertal development in boys, although controversy exists. The aim was to inve...

Background: Intermittent fasting increase maximum lifespan in several species and this effect is associated with reduced protein synthesis signaling. During fasting, a progressive loss of protein in human skeletal muscle is evident. Furthermore, fasting is associated with increased lipid oxidation and insulin resistance.Aim: To define which protein metabolic mechanisms are activated in skeletal muscle during fasting.Methods: We inv...

Objective: To investigate long-term effects of GH replacement therapy.Material and methods: Thirty-nine patients (mean age 52.5 years, 14 women) with adult-onset growth hormone deficiency (AOGHD), recruited from a randomized placebo-controlled crossover study of treatment with growth hormone (GH) and placebo for 9months each, were enrolled in an open prospective follow up study. GH replacement was given for additional thirty-three months and was individu...

Background and aim: The dual-release hydrocortisone Plenadren® has shown promising results of improved cardiovascular and metabolic profiles after treatment of adrenal insufficiency, possibly due to an improved circadian profile of cortisol, but results are ambiguous. Aim: To further investigate the potential effect of dual-release hydrocortisone on the metabolic profile as compared to conventional hydrocortisone in patients with secondary adrenal i...