Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Pituitary adenomas (PAs)/Pituitary Neuroendocrine Tumors (PitNETs) are a complex and heterogeneous group of lesions. Genetic and epigenetic studies have been performed to identify predictors of treatment outcome.Study aim: To profile clinically non-aggressive (NA) and aggressive (A) PAs/PitNETs, and carcinomas for somatic mutations and epigenetic alterations of genes involved in cell proliferation/differentiation, miRNA/lncRNA-post-transcript...

Background: DNA methylation has been recognized as a putative regulatory mechanism for CYP11B2 in primary hyperaldosteronism. We aimed to investigate the DNA methylation and the expression of a panel of genes encoding several enzymes involved in steroidogenesis in adrenocortical benign tumors.Methods: We collected a total of 60 adrenocortical tissues, including 9 non-functioning adrenal adenomas, 9 adenomas associated with autonomous cortisol se...

Introduction: The possible change in the pattern of hormonal secretion by pituitary tumours is a very intriguing issue indeed, notably in the case of corticotroph-cell adenomas.Methods/design: We retrospectively reviewed the records of 1259 consecutive endoscopic endonasal surgical procedures for pituitary adenomas from 1998 to 2013. Of these, 132 were ACTH-secreting adenomas associated with Cushing’s disease (CD) and 44 were silent corticotroph-cel...

Rationale and aim: A recent pangenomic study documented a subset of somatotroph mostly GNAS-wildtype PitNET/adenomas co-express steroidogenic factor 1 (SF1). Aim of our study was to investigate clinical and molecular features of a cohort of these tumour subtype. Study sample: We identified 20 cases of SF1-expressing somatotropinomas out of 173 (11.6%) operated via transsphenoidal endoscopic approach in 3 referral Pituitary Centers patients. Pre- and post...

Background: Previous studies have shown an association between low CYP11B2 DNA methylation levels and high CYP11B2 mRNA levels in aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA), suggesting that epigenetic mechanisms play a pivotal role for regulating CYP11B2 function in primary aldosteronism. It has been proposed that aldosterone-producing cell clusters (APCCs) may become a source of autonomous aldosterone production when evolving into APA.Aim: Our aim was to deter...