Endocrine Abstracts

Chronic stress, low socioeconomic status and ingestion of hypercaloric food are all recognized risk factors for obesity, metabolic syndrome (MetS) and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Given the complexity of these metabolic processes and the unavailability of animal models, there is poor understanding of their underlying mechanisms. We established a model of chronic psychosocial stress (CPS) in which animals of low social rank (subordinates, SUB) are vulnerable to weight gain while anim...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common neurodegenerative disease associated with ageing, is still an incurable condition. Although in vitro evidence strongly indicates that oestrogen exerts neurotrophic and neuroprotective effects, the role of this class of hormones in the treatment of AD is still a debated issue. In 2000 a new gene, named seladin-1 (for Selective Alzheimer’s Disease indicator-1), was identified and found to be down regulated in vuln...

In COVID-19 patients the occurrence of low T3 serum values is associated with disease severity and death, but hormonal substitutive replacement is still debated. Clinical trials reported so far failed to demonstrate clear beneficial effects of T3, T4 or both treatments. With the aim to analyze the peripheral effects of the acute deficiency of T3 in blood, we analyzed body fluid composition in 74 COVID-19 patients, admitted to our University Hospital during the last pandemic wa...

Background: The initial L-T4 dose in the treatment of congenital hypothyroidism (CH) currently recommended is 10–15 mcg/kg/die.Objective: We designed a multicenter randomized trial to evaluate the effects of different starting dose of L-T4 within the range 10–15 mcg/kg/die on neurocognitive development in children with CH.Methods: Seventy-two children with CH diagnosed by neonatal screening were enrolled in the study. The...

Background: Limited information exists on postoperative hypocortisolism and hypothalamuspituitary-adrenal axis recovery in patients with adrenal incidentaloma following unilateral adrenalectomy. We evaluated frequency of postoperative hypocortisolism and predictors for recovery in non-aldosterone- producing adrenocortical adenoma patients after unilateral adrenalectomy.Methods: A retrospective analysis of 32 adrenal incidentaloma patients originally incl...

The highly toxic heavy metal Cadmium (Cd) is widely spread in the environment and could exert estrogen-like activity in tissues including breast. Previous studies demonstrated that Cd binds to estrogen receptor α positive (ERα+) breast cancer (BC) cells. In this new study, we evaluated effects of Cd on both ERα+ and ERα negative (ERα-) BC models with the aim to further characterize the mechanisms involved in Cd-related BC carcinogenesis. Specifically, ...

Introduction: The best repletion and maintenance dosing regimens with cholecalciferol in vitamin D deficient HIV-1 patients remain unknown. Protease inhibitors (PIs) have been shown to inhibit vitamin D 1α- and 25α-hydroxylation in hepatocyte and monocyte cultures. We therefore evaluated the effect of a single high dose of cholecalciferol in vitamin D deficient HIV-1 postmenopausal women undergoing treatment with highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (cART), with and...

Background: Antithyroid drugs (ATDs) are the first line treatment for Graves’ disease in Europe and Asia. However, their long term-efficacy is doubtful, with a high disease relapse rate after discontinuation. Radioiodine and surgery can be used as a second line therapy as definitive approaches after ATDs failure. In recent years, the GREAT and the CSS scores have been suggested to assess the risk of relapse at the time of disease onset, but no data are available about th...

Introduction: Although testosterone has been suggested to play a protective role against the development of atherosclerosis, studies demonstrating an association between low testosterone, and incident major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) are scanty in the general population and absent in subjects with erectile dysfunction (ED). The aim of this study is to investigate whether low testosterone in subjects with ED predict incident fatal or non fatal MACE.<p class="abste...

Introduction: While the association of Klinefelter’s syndrome (KS) with infertility is well known, very few investigations have evaluated the prevalence of sexual dysfunction in KS. The aim of the present study is to systematically analyse the prevalence of KS in a consecutive series of adult male patients consulting for sexual problems and to investigate its specific correlates.Methods: Among a consecutive series of 1386 patients (mean age 48.9&#17...