Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) has recently been characterized as a cardiovascular risk factor. GDF15 correlates with insulin resistance and obesity in cross-sectional studies and exerts anorexigenic effects in interventional rodent studies. GDF15 has been proposed as a possible therapeutic target in the treatment of obesity, however its meal- and nutrient-dependent regulation in humans has not been investigated previously.Methods...

Only a few genes involved in spermatogenesis have clinical importance: Y chromosome micro deletions in the region called azoospermia factor (AZF) and oestrogen receptor alpha gene polymorphisms (ESR1).Objective: The study aim to evaluate ESR1 and Y chromosome deletion in infertile men.Subjects and methods: 43 infertile men, and 34 fertile men aged 20–50 years 50, were enrolled after signing the informed consent. Screening for ...

Objective: Growth hormone treatment (GHT) is a widely accepted treatment in growth hormone deficient (GHD) adults with nonfunctioning pituitary adenoma (NFPAs). However, concerns remain about the safety of GHT, because of its potentially stimulating effect on tumour (re)growth. The aim of this study was to evaluate tumour progression in NFPA patients using GHT.Patients and methods: From the Dutch National Registry of growth hormone treatment in adults, a...

Introduction: Breast neuroendocrine carcinoma is a rare aggressive neuroendocrine tumour (NET) and the research on this subject is poor. Only seven studies were cited in the literature. Incidence in the population has not been reported, but the prevalence is under 0.1% of all breast carcinomas.Case report: AV, 72, is hospitalised for bone pain and significant weight loss (15 kg in 2 months). Patient’s previous history are: diabetes, hypertension, no...

Introduction: Heterozygous inactivating mutations of the calcium sensing receptor (CaSR) gene cause mild alterations in calcium metabolism (familiar hypocalciuric hypercalcemia (FHH)). However, in addition to the parathyroid gland CaSR expression was recently identified in the myocardium and many other endocrine cells including pancreatic islet cells, entero-endocine cells and adipose tissue. So far, it is unknown whether FHH is associated with cardio-metabolic altera...

Background: Patients being cured of craniopharyngioma (CP) often suffer from severe hypothalamic obesity due to tumor localization or therapeutic interventions, which has a major impact on increased mortality and reduced quality of life. Gastric bypass surgery (GBS) was suggested to be an effective therapeutic option for weight reduction in those patients. However, long-term changes in body weight and postsurgical complications are unknown.Methods: 5 pat...

Glucocorticoid feed-back in pituitary corticotrophs represses POMC transcription and ACTH release. Serum and glucocorticoid-induced kinase 1 (Sgk1) has been identified as an immediate early target of glucocorticoids in many tissues, however its expression and function in corticotrophs are unknown.We show here that Sgk1 is present in the human pituitary gland at both mRNA and protein levels. Double-immunohistochemistry revealed that Sgk1 is expressed in d...

Gestational weight gain has been linked to obesity in women of childbearing age. Mothers who breastfeed present less postpartum weight retention. The underlying pathophysiological mechanisms are unknown. This study aimed at investigating the impact of breastfeeding on maternal appetite-regulating hormones.The clinical trial recruited 29 women divided in three age- and BMI-matched groups. The first group included 10 fully breastfeeding mothers of 3 to 6 m...

Due to limited treatment options the prognosis of patients with advanced hepatocellular cancer (HCC) has remained poor. We therefore examined the feasibility of radioiodine therapy of HCC after human sodium iodide symporter (hNIS) gene transfer, using the tumor-specific alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) promoter for transcriptional targeting. For this purpose NIS gene transfer was performed in vivo in human HCC cell (HepG2) xenografts, using replication-deficient adenoviral vecto...

Background: Untreated GH-deficiency (GHD) in adults has been suggested to be associated with an increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). Proposed causative factors are the tendency to overweight and the insulin resistance due to central adiposity.Patients and methods: The KIMS (Pfizer International Metabolic Database) was used to evaluate the prevalence of DM in both childhood-onset (CO; n=1977; 56% males) and in adult-onset (AO; ...