Endocrine Abstracts

A 81-year-old woman came to our hospital with complaints of reduction in appetite and weakness of lower limbs. She had developed Cushing’s features. Initial laboratory evaluation revealed severe hypokalemia and hyperglycemia without ketoacidosis, and diabetes mellitus had not been detected previously. A series of hormonal assessment revealed marked ACTH-dependent hypercortisolism. Corticotrophin-releasing hormone stimulation test resulted in normal ACTH response, thus we ...

Recent studies have reported that tissue micro-environment including tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) as well as neo-angiogenesis played pivotal roles in biological and clinical behavior of various human malignancies. In adrenal neoplasms, TILs are far more frequently detected in cortical than medullary tumors. In adrenocortical adenomas, we have recently demonstrated that enhanced angiogenic chemokines, especially CXCL12, in cortisol producing adenoma (CPA), induced TILs...

A 17-year-old male was referred to our hospital with lack of secondary sex characteristics. His voice didn’t break and he lacked of pubes and hircus. His bilateral testicular volume was small and his sense of smell was normal. There was no varicocele or pituitary adenoma. His chromosomal study showed no aberrations. Serum levels of LH, FSH, total testosterone and free testosterone were 1.05 mIU/ml, 1.68 mIU/ml, 0.26 ng/ml and <0.6 pg/ml respectively. A repeated GnRH t...

Seventy six-year-old man was referred to our hospital for examination of hypertension and hypokalemia. His blood pressure was uncontrolled although he was taking amlodipine besilate, spironolacton and candesartan. In addition, he suffered from atrial fibrillation and chronic heart failure. His serum potassium was low (2.8 mmol/l) and bilateral adrenal glands were found swelling. Hence, we investigated him thoroughly on the suspicion for primary aldosteronism.<p class="abst...

Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) is a relatively rare autosomal dominantly inherited condition characterized by hyperplastic and neoplastic disorders of endocrine organs such as the parathyroid, anterior pituitary and gastroenteropancreatic endocrine tissues. Germline mutation of the causative gene, MEN1, which localizes to human chromosome 11q13 and encodes the 610 amino-acid nuclear protein menin, can be identified in most affected subjects. MEN1 gene mutation anal...

Introduction: The standard treatment for differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) with distant metastasis comprises complete total thyroidectomy and lymph node dissection, followed by radioactive iodine (RAI) ablation for metastatic lesions. However, between 2014 and 2015, sorafenib and lenvatinib have been approved for treatment of RAI-refractory advanced thyroid cancer in Japan. We retrospectively analyzed how the treatment results have changed after the approval of tyrosine k...

Peripheral 18-oxocortisol level could contribute to the detection of aldosterone-producing adenoma in patients with primary aldosteronism. However, peripheral 18-oxocortisol varies among such patients, which is a big drawback concerning its clinical application. We studied 48 cases of aldosterone-producing adenoma, 35 harboring KCNJ5 mutation, to clarify the significance of clinical and pathological parameters regarding peripheral 18-oxocortisol. Peripheral 18-oxocort...

Introduction: Aging is associated with the pathogenesis of many endocrinological disorders, especially for functioning adrenocortical disorders. In addition, mitochondria DNA abnormalities have been reported to be correlated with aging through ROS which eventually resulted in cell senescence. We previously reported that cortisol-producing adenomas (CPA) expressed more abundant cell senescent markers including p16 and p21, compared to other hormone-producing adenomas. However, ...

Introduction: Pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma (PPGL) are rare endocrine tumors with few effective treatment options for malignant cases. Novel therapeutic indications, such as 177Lu-DOTA-TATE and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) for patients with PPGL, have been investigated in several clinical trials. Emerging evidence shows that somatostatin receptor 2 (SSTR2) in other cancer types correlates with the tumor microenvironment (TME) activation and could be a predictive bi...

Introduction: Angiogenesis is known to play an important role in the development, growth, and metastasis of carcinomas. The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and VEGF receptor (VEGFR) are major molecules involved in angiogenesis. The VEGF family includes seven members, respectively named VEGF-A (often simply denoted as VEGF), VEGF-B, VEGF-C, VEGF-D, VEGF-E, VEGF-F, and placental growth factor. The VEGFR is a tyrosine kinase receptor with one to three types and is activ...