Endocrine Abstracts

Aim: We investigated the influence of mitochondrial dysfunction associated with aging on physical performance in mice, and the effect of hormone replacement on physical performance.Method: Using 8, 20, 50 and 100 week-old C57bl6 mice, we evaluated skeletal muscle mass, mitochondrial activity, glucose tolerance and physical performance (muscle power and exercise endurance). In addition, we treated 50-week-old mice with ghrelin or insulin like growth facto...

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) in human has been believed to decrease muscle weight and physical performance. High protein diet would increase muscle mass and strength especially in athletes, but is not recommended for CKD patients because of the risk for exacerbation of uremia. Therefore, we investigated the muscle character especially focused on the mitochondrial activity and physical performance in 5/6 nephrectomy CKD model mice, which fed on different protein con...

We present a case of severe malignant pheochromocytoma complicated with intestinal pseudo-obstruction, which was refractory to conventional therapies but reacted to intravenous administration of an α-blocker, phentolamine.Malignant pheochromocytoma typically metastasizes to bones, liver, lungs, and lymph nodes, and average 5-year survival rate in the patient with metastases is approximately 50%. Treatment options for malignant pheochromocytoma inclu...

Introduction: Pheochromocytoma (PHEO) is a rare tumor of chromaffin cells with variable clinical presentation. Adrenal PHEOs secrete excessive amounts of noradrenaline or of noradrenaline plus adrenaline, whereas extra-adrenal PHEOs (paragangliomas) mostly secrete noradrenaline alone due to lack of expression of phenylethanolamine-N-methyltransferase (PNMT), the key enzyme converting noradrenaline into adrenaline. We report two exceptional cases of paragangliomas responsible f...

Primary aldosteronism (PA) is a major cause of secondary hypertension. Among PA, the diagnosis of an aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA) is critical because an APA can be cured surgically. Adrenal venous sampling (AVS) is the golden standard test in the diagnosis of an APA, but is available only in specialized medical centers. Meanwhile, aldosterone secretion of an APA is reported to be more sensitive to ACTH than that of idiopathic hyperaldosteronism (IHA) or essential hypert...