Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Patients with acromegaly have an increased fracture risk, particularly vertebral fractures. Growth hormone (GH) excess, and the related increase of IGF-1 levels, have been shown to impair bone microarchitecture more than bone density. Therefore, the assessment of trabecular bone score (TBS) has been recommended beside standard dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). The calcaneal quantitative ultrasound (QUS) is less expensive and more accessible compared to DXA,...

Introduction: The regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism in the brain is essential to ensure overall neurological health and proper functioning. Increased glycolysis and lipogenesis, if not properly regulated, can potentially lead to an imbalance between energy production in the brain. Glucose and lipid metabolic dysregulation contribute to the development and progression of various brain diseases. Besides other factors maternal undernutrition may alter glucose and lipid m...

Acromegaly is a rare disease usually diagnosed late in disease evolution. It implies for skeletal changes of most flat bones including those of the skull. Consequently, a progressive facial disfiguration occurs at slow velocity of irreversible nature. Even after curation most of these changes stay for the whole life of the patient.Aim: to study the potential relationship between disfiguring facial modifications and psychosocial and Quality of Life (QoL) ...

Cushing’s Disease (CD) is severe clinical condition due to an ACTH-secreting pituitary tumor. Here we present the case of a 25-years old male who came to our attention for hypertension, moon face, acanthosis nigricans, abdominal purple striae and central obesity. The diagnosis of CD was based on the presence of high plasma cortisol after dexamethasone suppression test and elevated urinary free cortisol levels (UFC, 6-fold higher the upper limit of normality (ULN)). The pi...

Pituitary adenomas constitute the third most common intracranial neoplasm. Adenoma cells either express no hormone (null cell adenoma) or hormones of different cell lineage. About 1% of pituitary adenomas shows a plurihormonal expression pattern, which may either be attributed to one cell lineage or rarely to different cell lineages. In addition, the development of separate pituitary adenomas may be observed in 0.5–1.5% of surgical specimens and in up to 10% of autopsy ca...

Thyroid hormone (TH) synthesis requires iodine, a scarce element whose recycling is mediated by DEHAL1 through deiodination of iodotyrosines MIT and DIT. In humans, DEHAL1 defects lead to severe congenital hypothyroidism (CH) non-detected by neonatal screening programs, which involves the risk of mental retardation in infants. The timing for establishment of this hypothyroidism remains unknown, but environmental iodine deficiency may represent a triggering factor. Whi...

: Magmas, a gene encoding for the mitochondrial import inner membrane translocase subunit, Tim16, protects different cell lines from the antitumoral effects of several pro-apoptotic stimuli (i.e. chemicals and chemotherapeutic agents). The synthetic Compound 5 is capable of sensitizing chemoresistant tumor cells overexpressing Magmas to proapoptotic stimuli, indicating that this molecule may be useful to overcome tumor chemoresistance. The aim of our study was to evaluate whet...

Introduction: Bone and energy metabolisms are deeply related determining a two-way street aimed in regulating the energy utilization [1]. Mountain ultra-marathons are peculiar aerobic performances hardly proving whole body homeostasis [2]. In this study we aimed at investigating and characterizing the metabolic profile (hormones involved in energy metabolism), the metabolic inflammation profile (adipokines), the bone metabolism (bone turnover markers), and their integration (m...

Background: The increased risk for fractures in type 2 diabetes mellitus despite higher bone density is unexplained. Trabecular bone score (TBS) is a novel texture index related to bone microarchitecture and it is independent of bone mineral density (BMD). The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between TBS, BMD and body composition in patients with New-Onset Diabetes after transplantation (NODAT).Methods: In a cross-sectional study, TB...

Acromegaly is a clinical manifestation of excessive peripheral growth hormone (GH) action. Most cases result from pituitary somatotroph adenomas displaying varying degrees of GH immunoreactivity. Occasionally, GH is cosecreted with a second hormone from adenomas containing mixed cell populations (e.g. somatolactotroph tumours). Coexistence of multiple discrete adenomas, identical or distinct in hormone secretion, is infrequent. In very rare cases, acromegaly results from neuro...