Endocrine Abstracts

The prevalence of congenital malformations such as hypospadias and cryptorchidism in boys has increased over the past decades, following time trends and geographic distribution of adult reproductive disorders such as testicular cancer and impaired semen quality. This suggests a common prenatal origin of a testicular dysgenesis syndrome. During the first postnatal months, the pituitary–gonadal axis is activated, which can be used as a diagnostic window of testicular functi...

Three decades ago wildlife findings of intersex, malformations and sex ratio changes in marine species, birds and mammals could be associated to environmental pollution. Public concern arose as to whether this was also a threat to humans as many countries experience an increase i.e. in the prevalence of infertility and obesity. Humans are continuously exposed to small doses of hundreds of EDCs throughout life and we know very little about their combined effects. Over the past ...

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated a high overall prevalence of testicular adrenal rest tumors (TART) in adults with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), whereas little is known about the prevalence in children. The aim of this study was to determine the presence of TART according to age and genotype.Design: Retrospective study, tertiary University centre.Patients and methods: In 47 male patients (age 2.6–40.3 yea...

Introduction: Phthalates are suspected to influence thyroid function in epidemiologic and experimental animal studies. The aim of the study was to investigate the ability of primary human thyroid cell cultures to metabolise phthalates and a possible concentration-dependent response of phthalates on thyroglobulin (Tg) secretion.Methods: Human thyrocytes obtained from thyroidectomies were cultured to confluent monolayers. These were exposed to DEHP in conc...

Context: Potency of the FSH-pathway varies according to polymorphisms in the promoter of the gene encoding the FSH beta subunit (FSHB −211 G>T, rs10835638) and in the gene encoding the FSH receptor (FSHR 2039 A>G, rs6166). A recent study suggested that carriers of the combination of FSHB GG and FSHR AA had the most reproductive ‘fit’ phenotype (higher serum FSH and a more sensitive FSH receptor). In pre-pubertal girls...

Background: Over the last 60 years body composition of young people have changed towards increased fatness. Whole body fat percentage (%BF) derived from dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scans are (although often not available) widely recognized as a better measure of fatness than BMI.Objective: We aimed to provide reference materials for %BF of healthy Danish children evaluated by skinfold measurements and DXA and to compare sensitivity and specifi...

Background: Little is known about the possible deleterious effects of phthalate exposure on endogenous sex steroid levels in childrenDesign: A longitudinal study.Materials and methods: 168 Healthy children (84 girls) were examined every 6 months for 5 years, with pubertal staging, measurements of serum levels of DHEAS and Δ4-androstenedione (Adione) and repetitive longitudinal morning urinary measurements of 14 phthalate metab...

The placenta is a highly specialized organ, which ensures nutrient uptake, waste elimination, provides thermo-regulation, prevents passage of some xenobiotic molecules and regulates the quantity of thyroid hormones (TH) necessary for the fetal development. It is known, that even minor changes in maternal TH levels, can alter the fetal growth. Several factors can modify TH levels during pregnancy. Among them, increasing evidences show that prenatal exposure to persistent organi...

Thyroid hormones (TH) of maternal origin are critical for the proper fetal development, especially during early pregnancy. Even minor changes in maternal TH circulation can lead to various adverse outcomes. Recent studies found that the metabolites of thyroxine (T4) also play an important physiological role. For example, 3,5-diiodo-L-thyronine (T2) and 3,3′-diiodo-L-thyronine (rT2) can suppress the thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) level ...

Gigantism is an extremely rare condition and hence the relevant literature is largely a series of case reports. We present data on patients with gigantism <20 years of age identified from Pfizer’s Acrostudy registry of patients treated with pegvisomant.Eleven patients (5M) were identified: IGF1 at diagnosis was 1.6×ULN (1.15–3.3), height +5 SDS (1.1–3.8) and age 14.5 years (4–19). The three youngest (4, 7 and 14 years) had pi...