Endocrine Abstracts

A 27-year-old woman with Carney Complex, with inactivating mutation of the PRKAR1α gene [(a 2-bp deletion of nucleotides T and G at positions 576 and 577 with frame-shift mutation beginning with aminoacid residue threonine 163 (ΔFSterThr163)], bearing a GH secreting microadenoma, Cushing syndrome from PPNAD and with high operatory risk because of the neurological sequelae of cerebral embolism from atrial myxomas, underwent a low-dose mitotane (MT) regimen.<p clas...

Hyponatremia may manifest with nausea, disorientation, seizures, coma, cerebral edema and even death. The etiology of hyponatremia as paraneoplastic syndrome has been attributed most often to high levels of vasopressin. Correction of hyponatremia is usually successful at moderately low sodium levels, although it must be done slowly to prevent osmotic demyelination. Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) rarely present paraneoplastic reactions, a few cases have been reported.<...

Background: Dopamine agonists (DA) are used as the first-line trearment in patients with macroprolactinomas. Late resistant to DA(cabergoline) therapy may occur. Patient with resistant macroprolactinoma may end up receiving a relative high dose of DA. These patients should be advised to take up radiotherapy option as earlier as possible to avoid the need of high dose dopamine agonist. We present a 63-year-old man who presented in 1999 with visual loss,due to giant macroprolact...

Background: GH therapy in adolescents with childhood onset GH deficiency (CO-GHD) is often necessary to prevent adult GHD syndrome and requires a re-evaluation of the GH axis on attainment of final height. Not all individuals with CO-GHD remain GH deficient and re-evaluation is required to confirm or refute adult GHD.Aim: Review the care received by young adults diagnosed with CO-GHD.Design: Retrospective review of young adults wit...

Pregnancy is a state of physiological hyperphagia and represents a good model to unravel the mechanisms involved in feeding regulation. The hyperphagia is the main responsible for the positive energy balance in gestation, which is necessary for maintaining maternal energy stores. The presence of high serum leptin levels and hyperphagia during pregnancy is a paradoxical event and reflects a state of leptin resistance. In order to evaluate the mechanisms for hypothalamic leptin ...

Introduction and aims: Diabetic neuropathy may trigger the development of anemia in patients even before the onset of advanced renal failure. Autonomic neuropathy with subsequent renal denervation, combined with damaged erythropoetin producing fibroblasts in renal cortex, may have contributed to the early development of anemia in the patients with diabetes. Proliferative retonopathy, autonomic neuropathy, microalbuminuria, and moderate renal failure, suggesting that, factors o...

Adhesion GPCRs (aGPCRs) have been implicated in developmental processes and deletion of some aGPCRs in neonatal mice results in decreased β-cell differentiation capacity, leading to glucose intolerance in adult life. Here, we investigated the expression of aGPCR mRNAs in mouse islets and determined the expression and function of GPR56, the most abundant aGPCR in islets, in developing mouse pancreas. Quantitative PCR indicated that mouse islets expressed mRNAs encoding 26 ...

In my short methodological talk, I will present why we need a detailed structural description of membrane proteins such as the TSH receptors (TSHR) of the endocrine system and how can we succeed to get three-dimensional structures. The talk includes a methodical toolbox of protein-production or -stabilization and advanced structural biology techniques like protein X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy for selected examples....

Although the notion of paracrine and autocrine signalling was already suggested more than 100 years ago, its full recognition dates from the last 30 years. Paracrine communication and autocrine loops have been shown to operate in all hormonal cell types and in folliculo-stellate cells and other non-hormonal cells during fetal and postnatal development and adulthood. More than 100 compounds have been identified that have, or may have, paracrine or autocrine actions, including t...

Food intake is centrally regulated in hypothalamic nuclei. Peripheral hormonal signals activate their corresponding receptors in the arcuate nucleus (arc) and modulate the expression of pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) and neuropetide Y (NPY)/agouti-related-protein (AgRP). Cleavage products of POMC stimulate melanocortin-4-receptors (MC4R) in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) to inhibit food intake or stimulate MC3Rs in the arc to activate a feedback loop. Further mor...