Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) is common; disproportionately affecting the overweight and obese. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the first-line treatment for moderate to severe OSAS. Clinical equipoise exists as to whether CPAP treatment directly affects pituitary-gonadal hormone synthesis.Study Aim: This study aimed to determine the effect of CPAP treatment on gonadotropins, prolactin, sex-hormone binding-globulin (SH...

The finding of an adrenal incidentaloma warrants a careful diagnostic work-up to assess hormonal activity and potential malignancy. Current diagnostic algorithms depend largely on imaging studies, which is time-consuming, expensive and carries a health risk. Urinary steroid profiling using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) might be a valuable diagnostic test for differentiating benign from malignant adrenal lesions, as adrenocortical carcinomas (ACC) often cause abn...

PTTG has been implicated in the pathogenesis of pituitary, thyroid and other tumours. PBF was recently identified as a protein which interacts specifically with PTTG both in vitro and in vivo. PBF facilitates PTTG's nuclear localisation, and mediates its ability to transactivate basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2). We investigated PBF expression and function in vitro, and examined its relationship to PTTG action. Transient transfection of wild type PTTG induced a significan...

Ghrelin stimulates growth hormone (GH), prolactin (PRL) and cortisol release in rodents and healthy humans.Aim: to determine the effects of ghrelin on neuroendocrine response in patients with AN in this cross-sectional hospital based study, approved by the Local Ethical Committee. Twenty-five young women were studied: AN with very low body weight (BMI 12.0±0.4 kg/m2), partially recovered AN (PRAN 17.2±1.3 kg/m2) and consti...

Pregnancy is associated with increased circulating growth hormone (GH), which is thought to originate from the placenta in humans, but from the pituitary in rats. In this study we investigated the changes in somatotroph and lactotroph populations, and quantified spontaneous and secretagogue-induced GH and prolactin (PRL) secretion during pregnancy in rats.Using electron microscopy and immunogold labelling, somatotroph and lactotroph populations were quan...

Introduction: We study the calcitonin levels measurement in the washout of FNAB needles after sampling each thyroid nodule (FNAB-CT) as an approach to calcitonin normal value in them and distinguish of MTC and to correlate with serum CT (sCT) and cytology FNAB.Material & Methods: 109 consecutive subjects (mean age 53.7±13.4, range 18–85 yr, 79.8% females, 27.5% smokers, 18.3% autoimmune thyroid disease) initially no suspicious for MTC who u...

Background: The late gestational surge in glucocorticoids is vital for the maturation of fetal organs in preparation for birth and survival during the neonatal period. Metabolic maturation of cardiomyocytes involves a switch in fuel substrate from glucose utilization to fatty acid (FA) oxidation. In fetal cardiomyocytes, glucocorticoids induce expression of Ppargc1a (encoding PGC1a, a master regulator of mitochondrial capacity). We hypothesized that glucocorticoids pr...

Introduction: Transsexuality is defined as discordance between one’s assigned sex at birth and that individual’s gender identity. Hormonal, anatomical, legal and psychosocial adaptations are present in most cases. Following recent changes to the Spanish legal framework, modifications have instaured to the model of attention for transsexual people in Andalusia. The aim of this study was to evaluate healthcare demand evolution in Trans People Attention Unit of Puerta...

Background: To arrest the immune-mediated destruction of the insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells in type 1 diabetes (T1D), interventional studies have predominantly focussed on two distinct approaches: arresting the ongoing immune response or protecting the pancreatic beta cells. Recently, both approaches using respectively low-dose anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG), an immune-depleting agent, and verapamil, a calcium channel blocker with beta cell protective ...

BACKGROUND: Male steroidal contraceptive regimens achieve azoospermia in 60-90% of Caucasians. The mechanisms underlying this heterogeneity in response are not clear. The aim of this retrospective study was to examine a number of polymorphisms in genes involved in androgen metabolism and action, in azoospermic responders (n=73) and oligozoospermic non-responders (n=44) from previous contraceptive trials. METHODS: Local Ethical Committee approval was obtained. DNA was extracted...