Endocrine Abstracts

Columnar cell variant is rare variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma. It occurs in both genders with the most common occurence in the middle age of life. It differs from common PTC both in morphology and especially in biological behavior. The cancer cells also commonly harbor BRAF mutation. We describe a case of young women, who came for the examination of the thyroid gland before in vitro fertilization. We found normal thyroid function tests, negative antibodies. A s...

The androgen receptor (AR) is a steroid-hormone receptor that plays a crucial role in the normal development of male reproductive tissues. Its high expression and/or relaxation of its regulation are strongly implicated in prostate cancer (PCa). Androgen binding induces conformational changes of AR that influence its subcellular localization, interactions with other proteins, DNA binding and transcriptional activity. Androgen dependent is also AR(S81) phosphorylation. Phosphory...

Introduction: To understand the pathological changes associated with glucose homeostasis in old age, it is necessary to know the natural changes in the processing of proinsulin into mature insulin. Surprisingly, while there is abundant information about insulin function in diabetics, the situation in healthy adults and old humans was rarely examined.The study aimed: To determine how the proinsulin secretion in individuals with normal glucose tolerance ch...

Introduction: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that is manifested by progressive loss of cognitive function. Neuroactive steroids and their metabolites have an important regulatory role in the nervous system, affect neuronal plasticity, response to stress, learning and memory and have a neuroprotective effect. One of the not fully elucidated risk factors for AD is impaired glucose tolerance/type 2 diabetes (T2D). It is well known that lower androgen...

Introduction: The shape of the glucose curve during oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) reflects the dynamic of the glucose stimulus-response, and it can be considered as predictor of the impaired glucose tolerance and Type 2 Diabetes (T2D). Nucleoside diphosphate kinase 7, non-metastatic cells 7 (NME7) is an acknowledged member of ciliome and is involved in the biogenesis or function of cilia. Due to the fact that obesity and T2D are common in several ciliopathies, we enrolled...

In recent years, there has been increasing evidence for the hypothesis of bones as endocrine organs. Osteocalcin, long considered just a marker of new bone formation, is now seen as the first hormone produced by bones, and seems to be associated with regulating glucose metabolism and reproduction. The aim of this work was to monitor changes of osteocalcin in reaction to hypoglycaemia, and determine if there are differences in such reactions between the sexes. The study include...

Introduction: Low-dose dexamethasone suppression test is used to screen for excess cortisol production (Cushing’s syndrome). It is recommended to use cut-off for suppression of serum cortisol (SC) < 50 nmol/l after 1 mg dexamehason suppression test (DST). Plasma dexamethasone levels are affected by many factors resulting in lower test specificity. Simultaneous analysis of dexamethasone and cortisol levels can improve diagnostic accuracy of DST. We used cut-off level o...

Introduction: Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is a rare disease with incidence estimated 2-4 cases per million inhabitants per year. ACTH-dependent forms comprise up to 80% of all cases, of which 80% are central and 20% are ectopic, paraneoplastic forms of ACTH-dependent CS. Thymic neuroendocrine tumors (NET) are accounting for 0,4 - 3% of all NET’s with incidence of 0.02/100 000 inhabitants/year. Up to one third of them are hormonally active (secrete adrenocorticotropic hor...

Dehydroepiandrosterone is the most abundant steroid hormone circulating in the human body, we focused on its 7-hydroxylated derivatives. Many observations in rodents have demonstrated the anti-inflammatory and immune modulating activity of 7β-hydroxy-androst-5-enes, and on the basis of these experiments androst-5-ene-3β,7β,17β-triol is considered as a potential agent in the treatment of autoimmune diseases. In contrast to the fairly abundant information on ...

Abstract: Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is the most powerful naturally occurring androgen with three to six times higher biopotency than testosterone. Time onset of benign prostatic hyperplasia and alopecia in middle life could be the result of an imbalance between androgens. The decline of testosterone during lifespan is well known, controversial data can be found concerning the age dependence of DHT levels. We analysed the levels of testosterone, dihydrotestosterone and SHBG fro...