Endocrine Abstracts

Background: RhGH treatment in adults with childhood onset growth hormone deficiency (COGHD) affect bone metabolism over time according to gender and age. A long-term study of bone mass density (BMD) in young-middle age hypopituitary patients with COGHD may better highlight possible benefits of therapy and improve clinical follow up.Methods: We enrolled 40 adults (age range during follow-up: 16.8–36 years, F: 38%) with COGHD with at least 20 years o...

Familial pituitary adenoma is frequently associated with germinal mutations of several genes, including menin gene. MEN1 syndrome is an autosomic dominant disease, characterized by parathyroid adenomas, endocrine gastroenteropancreatic tumors, and pituitary adenomas, due to inactivating mutations of the MenI gene (11q13). MEN1 mutations are scattered within and around the menin open reading frame and are mainly represented by single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and ...

Everolimus (RAD001), an immunosuppressant drug, has antineoplastic activity in human neoplasia, including endocrine tumors, due to its ability to inhibit the AKT down-stream signaling pathway. It has been demonstrated that AKT is overexpressed and up-regulated in pituitary tumor, including ACTH-producing pituitary tumors, that are still orphan of an effective medical therapy. We therefore investigated the effects of RAD001 on cell viability, apoptosis and mTOR phosphorilation ...

GH and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) are known to promote breast carcinogenesis. Even if breast cancer (BC) incidence in not increased in female acromegalic patients, mortality is greater as compared to general population. In order to evaluate whether GH/IGF1 excess might influence BC response to therapy, accounting for the increased mortality, we evaluated the effects of GH and IGF1 on cell proliferation of a BC cell line, the MCF7 cells, in the presence of doxorubicine...

Effective medical therapy for persistent/recurrent medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is not available, yet. Everolimus (RAD001) is a Rapamycin derivative, a potent mTOR pathway inhibitor. RAD001 has been employed in several clinical studies demonstrating antiproliferative and apoptotic effects in human tumors, both in vitro and in vivo, also in combination with somatostatin analogs. The aim of our study was to investigate the antiproliferative effects of RAD001 i...

Objective: Seventeen patients (9 women, 8 men aged 36 years, 22–58) radically resected for ACC were treated with adjuvant mitotane and prospectically followed from 2000 to 2006.Methods: Stage of ACC: was: 1 stage I,; 12 stage II, 4 stage III; Weiss score 6, 3–9; Ki67% 20, 4–67. Eleven patients had functional tumors. Median duration of treatment was 15 months (range:4–84) and 14 patients are currently on mitotane, 2 died, 1 discontinue...

Varicocele is a state of varicosity and tortuosity of the pampiniform plexus around the testis caused by retrograde blood flow. The association between varicocele and male subfertility has been questioned, thus the usefulness of treating varicocele in order to improve fertility is still a matter of debate. Inhibin B levels reflect the functional state of the seminiferous epithelium, and have been found to be a sensitive index of spermatogenesis. Serum inhibin B levels have bee...

Introduction and Aim: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is an endocrine disease closely related to several risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Previous study demonstrated an impaired cardiopulmonary functional capacity in PCOS women. The present study was performed to evaluate the effects of 3-months exercise training (ET) programme on cardiopulmonary functional capacity in young women with PCOS.Patients and Methods: The study was conducted according...

Introduction: Increased plasma levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) in response to acute hypoglycemia have been well documented. Counter-regulatory hormones are likely to play a role in this inflammatory response.Objective: To study the interaction between IL-6 and counter-regulatory hormones during hypoglycemic stress.Methods: We conducted an exploratory single center study involving 23 patients (mean age = 34.15 ± 8.87 years, ...

Somatostatin (SS) receptors (SSR) expression may be modulated by estrogens in breast cancer cells. Aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of estradiol (E2) on SSR levels in prostate epithelial cells (PEC).Methods: We investigated the effects of E2 and SS-analogue SOM230 combined treatment on two PEC lines: EPN that expresses both ERalfa and beta and CPEC, showing no ERalfa and very low ERbeta expression. Cells starved in red ...