Endocrine Abstracts

It is well known that heart failure is associated with oxidative stress (OS). Reactive oxygen species in fact influence sarcolemmal and mitochondrial ione channels, which are responsible for cardiomyocyte excitability and are important in myocardial remodeling after a myocardial infarction. The decrease of anabolic axes can have a role in the progression of the illness.In order to evaluate the relationship between growth hormone deficiency (GHD) and inde...

The IGF1 response to recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) showed some individual variability and the responsible factors for this behavior remain unknown. Some studies have emphasized the possible role of isoforms of the GH receptor (GHR), showing conflicting results.Therefore, we investigated the possible influence of the isoforms of the GHR to the diagnosis of GHD and in determining adult hormone replacement therapy responsiveness.<p class="abst...

Introduction: Acromegaly is an insidious disease caused by chronic GH and IGF-I hypersecretion associated with increased morbidity and mortality, mostly from cardiovascular complications. The aim of this study is to compare cardiovascular risk factors, between patients with medical treatment vs cured.Materials and methods: This is a retrospective study of 37 acromegalic patients, 21 well controlled with medical treatment (IGF-I within the normal range fo...

Anabolic therapies represent a major advance in the management of severe osteoporosis. Parathyroid hormone (PTH) and human recombinant PTH peptide 1–34 (Teriparatide) demonstrated an increase in bone mineral density and a significant reduction in vertebral fractures in patients with osteoporosis when given for 18–24 months. The intermittent administration of PTH or teriparatide stimulates osteoblastic function, improves bone architecture and has an additional analges...

Cancer cells and embryonic stem cells share many key biological properties and have common genetic signature: transcription factors regulating self-renewal and differentiation have been found expressed in human cancer cells. We focused our attention on TBX1, the gene involved in 22q11.2 microdeletion/DiGeorge syndrome, which is involved in heart, thymic and parathyroid cells differentiation.Real-time PCR, western blot and immunohistochemistry de...

Tumour-associated fibroblasts (TAFs) are important players in tumour formation, growth, enhancement and metastasis. We firstly investigated the TAFs component in human parathyroid neoplasia from patients with primary hyperparathyroidism. Alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA) has been used to identify activated TAFs (myofibroblasts). Culturing explants from parathyroid adenomas (PA, n=5), large spindle-shaped alpha-SMA+ cells outgrew from explants and the expression of...

Pituitary transforming gene 1 (PTTG1) is a mammalian securing involved in mitosis to ensure chromosomal stability. PTTG1 is overexpressed in a variety of tumors. It can directly and indirectly induce expression of genes that are involved in regulating tumorigenesis and cancer development (c-Myc, bFGF, VEGF and MMP2).We evaluated PTTG1-expression by immunohistochemistry on formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded specimen testicular tissues from 53 male patie...

Introduction: Everolimus is an oral mTOR inhibitor that exerts antineoplastic effects inhibiting cell proliferation, survival and angiogenesis. Its activity in advanced neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) has been demonstrated in controlled trials and everolimus was approved by the FDA for the treatment of progressive, advanced pNETs in May 2011.Materials and methods: We treated with everolimus, at the dosage of 10 mg once daily, 14 patients with advanced, prog...

We have demonstrated that adjuvant mitotane prolong recurrence free survival (RFS) in patients with radically resected ACC. Aim of the present study was to correlate mitotane levels with patient outcome in an adjuvant setting in 3 different referral centres in Europe. There were 120 patients (45 W, 75 M, median age 44 years, range 16–76) radically resected for ACC who were treated adjuvantly with mitotane from 1996 to 2010. ACC was stage I in 10 cases, II in 73, III in 31...

The coexistence of pheochromocytoma and hyperreninemia secondary to renal artery stenosis, which both represent important causes of juvenile hypertension, has been reported in Literature, while association between pheochromocytoma and reninoma has never been described.We evaluated a 24-year-old boy, which came to our attention for severe hypertension, unresponsive to anti-hypertensive polytherapy. In 1996, because of elevated calcitonin levels (180 pg/ml...