Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: To investigate endocrine disorders concerning bone metabolism, thyroid and gonadal axis in treatment–naïve HIV-infected male patients.Subjects and methods: We studied 70 male, treatment-naïve patients (stage A=60, stage B=10) from the Infectious Diseases Unit of our Hospital. Anthropometric indices were measured and BMI was calculated for each participant. Blood samples were obtained after an overnight fasting for the evaluation...

The prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its hepatic manifestation, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), continues to escalate. Glucocorticoids (GCs) and bile acids (BAs) are established regulators of metabolic phenotype. 5β-reductase (AKR1D1) is highly expressed in human and rodent liver, where it inactivates steroid hormones and catalyses a fundamental step in BA synthesis. We have previously demonstrated that AKR1D1 modulates hepatic GC availability and GC recept...

Steroid hormones and BAs are established regulators of metabolic phenotype. 5β-reductase (AKR1D1) is highly expressed in the liver where it inactivates steroid hormones and catalyses a fundamental step in bile acid (BA) synthesis. We have hypothesised that AKR1D1 plays a crucial regulatory role in hepatic metabolic homeostasis. Genetic manipulation of AKR1D1 was performed in human liver HepG2 and Huh7 cells. Expression changes were confirmed by qPCR and western blotting, ...

5α reductases 1 and 2 (SRD5A1 and SRD5A2) metabolise cortisol into inactive 5α-dihydrocortisol contributing to the regulation of cortisol availability in addition to their established role in the generation of dihydrotestosterone from testosterone. Dutasteride and finasteride are commonly prescribed to patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia but their potential metabolic effects have only recently been identified. Dutasteride inhibits both SRD5A1and SRD5A2 whilst ...

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is rapidly becoming the commonest cause of liver cirrhosis and leading indication for liver transplant worldwide. It is tightly associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes, yet the precise mechanisms that drive its aetiology are not fully defined. Dysregulation of both glucocorticoid and androgen metabolism has been implicated in its pathogenesis. The availability of these hormones to bind and activate their receptors is mainly regulat...

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the hepatic manifestation of metabolic disease. 5β-reductase (AKR1D1) is highly expressed in human liver where it inactivates steroid hormones and, in parallel, catalyzes a fundamental step in bile acid synthesis. Steroid hormones, including glucocorticoids, as well as bile acids (BAs) are established regulators of metabolic phenotype. We have hypothesized that AKR1D1 plays a crucial regulatory role in hepatic metabolic homeost...

Objectives: Triiodothyronine (LT3) administration for 48hours in patients undergone primary angioplasty showed favourable effects on cardiac function and remodelling early after myocardial infarction (Thy-Repair, EudraCT 2016-000631-40, Thyroid 2022 Jun;32(6):714-724). The present study investigated whether this beneficial effect was dependent on the severity of infarct size. The extent of infarct size is one of the main determinants of morbidity and mortality after myocardial...

Background: Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide, affecting both sexes. Awareness and prevention practices aiming to control cardiovascular risk in women remain inadequate. On the other hand, circulating amyloid β 1-40 (Aβ1-40) is a proatherogenic peptide, closely linked with the process of aging. We aimed to evaluate the possible association between the progression of atherosclerosis in postmenopausal women and the role of Aβ1-40 ...

Background: A large body of evidence is supporting that the incidence of adverse cardiovascular events is increasing signfiicantly after the menopausal transition. Primary prevention practices continue to propose evolving algorithms, in an attempt to accurately estimate the actual female cardiovascular risk at midlife. Irrespectively of these attempts, considerable unrecognized cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk remains unexplained, beyond traditional risk factors (TRFs). On th...

Background: Arterial stiffness is a well-established surrogate marker of vascular properties and arterial dysfunction in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2). We aimed to investigate whether optimization of DM2 therapy with, additional to metformin, novel antiglycemic agents may improve arterial wall properties and achieve better glycemic control.Methods: We enrolled 99 consecutive patients (male gender=63.3%) receiving metformin for DM2 who did ...