Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Thyrotropin (TSH)-secreting pituitary adenomas are rare (<1% of all pituitary tumors) and cause secondary hyperthyroidism.Case report: A 33-year old woman with type 1 diabetes mellitus presented in 2009 with palpitations. She had a past medical history of radioiodine therapy for thyrotoxicosis in 1998. After radioiodine treatment, she received an increasing daily dose of thyroxine (from 50 to 175 μg) because of her gradually rising...

Endostatin, a cleaved fragment of collagen XVIII, is a potent endogenous angiogenesis inhibitor. Elevated serum endostatin levels have been recently reported in patients with various types of neoplasms. The purpose of our study was to evaluate serum concentrations of endostatin in patients harbouring various types of pituitary adenomas and to examine the relationship of serum endostatin levels to circulating vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels. Preoperative serum ...

Introduction: Non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFPA) are characterised by the expression of somatostatin receptors (SSTR), which is analysed using immunohistochemical investigations. The presence of SSTR forms the basis for the clinical use of somatostatin analogues (SSA) in the treatment of these tumours.Aim: The study was undertaken to provide immunohistochemical analysis of SSTR and to correlate it with tumoral response to SSA therapy in NFPA.<...

Metoclopramide (MCP) is a selective blocker of dopamine D2 receptor, responsible for the dopamine inhibition of prolactin (PRL) secretion from the pituitary. In normal conditions, administration of the proper dose of MCP leads to increase of PRL concentration in the blood serum. This response was applied in the diagnostic test (MCP test), useful to differentiate between hyperprolactinaemia linked with organic causes (prolactinoma and other lesions of hypothalamo-pituitary regi...

Introduction: Somatostatin analogues (SSAs) are used in the treatment of somatotropinomas. Actually, the use of these drugs in clinically non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFPA) is raised. The aim of the study is to assess the effectiveness of SSA therapy in both groups.Materials and methods: 40 acromegalic patients and 22 patients with NFPA were treated with SSA for the total therapy duration up to 10 years. Hormonal profile, dynamics of tumour size c...

Background: In our earlier study we found that pituitary adenomas, like other human tumours, express ectopically follicle stimulating hormone receptors FSH in intratumoral blood vessels endothelia and/or tumoral cells. The aim of the present paper is to provide the more detailed data on FSHR expression in different subtypes of pituitary adenomas and to evaluate its possible role as a prognostic and/or predictive biomarker in these tumours.Material and me...

Clinically non-functioning pituitary adenomas (CNFPA) represent a heterogenous group of tumors. Most of CNFPA are aggressive, usually diagnosed relatively late and surgery often fails to achieve the complete excision of tumor and the recurrence rate is high. About 80% of CNFPA are characterized by intense expression of somatostatin receptors (SSTR) inspiring use of somatostatin analogs (SSTa) in the medical cure of CNFPA. Scintigraphy with visualization of SSTR2 expression and...

Introduction: In many tissues angiotensin peptides acts as the auto/paracrine growth factors. Their effects are dependent on activation of various intracellular signaling pathways, including mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK).Angiotensin II (ang II) is the best known angiotensin peptide. The ang II derivatives, angiotensin III (ang III) and angiotensin IV (ang IV) posses biological activity as well. Both ang II and ang IV are known to promote the p...

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: Pheochromocytomas are rare neuroendocrine tumors arising from chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla. Approximately 10% of all pheochromocytomas are malignant. There is no effective therapy for malignant pheochromocytoma (MAL-PHEO) and the overall prognosis is poor.Case report: We report 22-year survival with MAL-PHEO in a patient treated with several surgeries, 131I-metaiodobenzylguanidine and, subsequently, with long-acting fo...