Endocrine Abstracts

Progesterone (PRG) deficiency has been linked to an increased risk of cancer, while normal levels of PRG in the body actually help protect you against some forms of cancer. The tumor suppressor role of this steroid was envisaged, however the mechanism through which this occurs was not clearly established. The effects of progesterone act via the progesterone receptor (PR) of which two isoforms, called A (PR-A) and B (PR-B) were discovered. Herein, we present a novel finding sin...

Varicocele and diabetes mellitus (DM) have long been recognized to impair male fertility by interfering with both sperm parameters and production, however the molecular mechanism by which these effects occur remains largely unknown. Cyclooxygenases are important in spermatogenesis, but their ultrastructural localization in sperm cells and their role in male infertility have not yet established in humans. In the present study we presented the evidence of constitutive (COX-1) an...

Sperm energy management is poorly studied and understood. The present study provides biochemical and morphological evidence that ejaculated human sperm express the mitochondrial citrate carrier (CIC) which is restricted to the midpiece. CIC inhibition by the specific substrate analogue 1,2,3-benzenetricarboxylate (BTA) reduced cholesterol efflux, proteins tyrosine phosphorylation, P-AKT, P-P60src addressing to its functional role in sperm acquisition of fe...

Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) is a single chain oxidoreductase that catalyzes tryptophan degradation to kynurenine. In cancer, it appears to exert an immunosuppressive function as part of an acquired mechanism of immune escape. In view of this notion, IDO1 has started to be considered a novel target in cancer therapy. Objective of this study was to evaluate IDO1 expression in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and to correlate its expression with genetic determinants of ...