Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: A high prevalence of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and hyperandrogenism has been described in adult women with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) is secreted by granulosa cells of antral ovarian follicles and its plasma concentration is correlated with the number of small antral follicles. AMH levels are increased in women with PCOS and higher plasma concentration has been observed in prepubertal girls with T1DM. The aim of this...

Recently, since the lives of patients with chronic renal failure have prolonged considerably, the importance of prevention and treatment of metabolic bone disease which inevitably develops in this group, has become better appreciated.The aim of this study was to evaluate the relation between bone mineral density (BMD) and specific markers of bone turnover in haemodialysis (HD) population.A cross-sectional study involving 40 HD pati...

Aging is associated with weight loss, appetite decline, reduced fat-free mass (FFM) and increased fat mass (FM). Dysregulation of the ghrelin and leptin systems could reduce hunger and promote early satiety in elderly subjects, leading to impairment of the nutritional status. To better clarify this issue, we evaluated the response of plasma ghrelin and leptin to a standardised oral mixed nutrient load (SOMNL) in elderly subjects with different body composition. The study popul...

Congenital morphological thyroid abnormalities can be classified as hemiagenesis or total agenesis, lingual thyroid, substernal thyroid, thyroglossal ductus remnant. Hemiagenesis with absence of one lobe or lobe and isthmus is very rare, it was found in 4 of 7000 scans in one study. The left lobe is absent four times as often as the right lobe, and women are about three times more likely than men to have this developmental defect. Usually diagnosing this condition is not very ...

Studies in rats suggest that androgens are involved in sex-specific differences in blood pressure. In human studies there is no difference in blood pressure between boys and girls, but following puberty, men present with a higher blood pressure than women. Modulation of sodium reabsorption through the ENaC is an important component in the control of sodium balance. This is clearly demonstrated by rare genetic disorders of sodium-channel activity (Liddle's syndrome and pseudohy...

Ghrelin is a 28 amino acid n-octanoylated peptide which is the natural agonist for the growth hormone secretagogue receptor and which potently stimulates GH release in vivo (1). We studied the effects of a somatostatin infusion on Ghrelin release in normal subjects.STUDY PROTOCOLFour females and five males, 25-40 years of age, body mass index < 28 kg per m2 were studied. Local ethics committee permission was obtained for ...

We hypothesised that normal regulation of 25(OH)D3-24-hydroxylase (encoded by CYP24) determines the autocrine/paracrine action of 1,25(OH)2D3 in normal breast and prostate epithelial cells. Furthermore, these processes are compromised in malignancy.We therefore studied the regulation of CYP24, amongst a panel of breast and prostate cancer cell lines (ZR-75-1, T47-D, MCF-7, MDA-MB-231 breast cells and LNCaP, PC-3 and DU-145 prostate cells) that display d...

Introduction: Observations in patients with GH disturbances and in normal populations have suggested that GH/IGF1 activity could have anti-inflammatory effects. On the other hand, in vitro studies have shown that IGF1 may stimulate the immune system.Methods/design: The study population consisted of 12 healthy volunteers (mean age 36, range 27–49 years) treated with GH for 3 weeks (1st week 0.01 mg/day, 2nd 0.02 mg/day, 3rd 0.03 mg/day) and su...

Background: The Visceral Adiposity Index (VAI) has been suggested as a new gender-specific marker of visceral adipose dysfunction, strongly associated with insulin sensitivity in patients with cardio-metabolic risk.Aim: To test VAI in active acromegaly for the assessment of disease-associated metabolic risk evaluating its association with hormonal data, adipocytokine levels, insulin sensitivity and secretion parameters in a cohort of 27 subjects (15 M, 1...

Background: Of the currently available treatment regimes for acromegaly, pegvisomant (PEG-V) has the highest efficacy. During PEG-V treatment, GH serum levels increase. The exact mechanism behind this is remains unclear. It could be explained by an ultra-short feedback loop via GH receptors in the anterior pituitary gland.Objective: To assess the level of GH receptor (GHR) mRNA expression in somatotroph adenomas and to evaluate whether GHR blockade by PE...