Endocrine Abstracts

5alpha-Reductase1 (5aR1) catalyses glucocorticoid metabolism, potentially modulating glucocorticoid clearance and therefore affecting the activity of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. 5aR1 is up regulated in obesity associated with activation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. Here we investigated if inhibition of 5aR1 impairs glucocorticoid clearance and suppresses the HPA axis.Age-matched male and female ...

Hyper- and hypo-thyroidism are considered as clinical conditions of sleep alterations. At present, however, these clinical reports have never been confirmed by studies providing a structured description of subjective and objective sleep quantity and quality. To this aim, we enrolled 15 patients with naïve overt hyperthyroidism (HYPER), 9 with naïve overt primary hypothyroidism (HYPO) and 15 healthy age-, sex- and BMI-matched control subjects (CS). Clinical conditions...

Background: Severe GH deficiency (GHD) is associated with, increased cardiovascular (CV) risk and intima-media thickness (IMT) at major arteries.Objective: To investigate the long-term (5-years) effects of GH replacement on insulin resistance (IR) syndrome (IRS) (at least two of: triglycerides levels ≥1.7 mmol/l, HDL-cholesterol levels ≤1.0 mmol/l, blood pressure above 130/85 mmHg, fasting glucose 6.1–7 or 2 h after glucose 7.7–11.1...

Aspergillus infection (A)is often recognized in severely immunocompromised patients.Although involvement of the thyroid gland is reported for 9–15% of patients with disseminated disease, a localized clinical picture it’s not reported.Here, we present a case of Aspergillus in a LES young patient (15-year-old girl), who underwent to a strong immunosuppressive regimen (high doses of corticosteroids, endoxan and...

Objective: Seventeen patients (9 women, 8 men aged 36 years, 22–58) radically resected for ACC were treated with adjuvant mitotane and prospectically followed from 2000 to 2006.Methods: Stage of ACC: was: 1 stage I,; 12 stage II, 4 stage III; Weiss score 6, 3–9; Ki67% 20, 4–67. Eleven patients had functional tumors. Median duration of treatment was 15 months (range:4–84) and 14 patients are currently on mitotane, 2 died, 1 discontinue...

Extracellular nucleotides, via specific plasma membrane receptors (P2Rs) of the X and Y subtype, modulate several cell functions, including cell-to-cell cross talk. We have previously demonstrated the expression of several functional P2XRs subtypes, including P2X7, in primary human thyrocytes. P2X7 is the main player in inflammation and immunomodulation; a strong expression of this receptor has been shown in several human solid tumors. Polymorphisms of the gene enco...

Growth is an integrated process, resulting from the response of cells to nutrient availability and to hormonal status. Nutrients, in turn, are important regulators of IGF-IGFBP system which are critical regulators of growth. Genetic factors seem to be very important determinant of final stature in countries with high quality of life at variance with underprivileged countries where food intake deficiency is critical. The aim of our study was to evaluate the influence of environ...

Varicocele is a state of varicosity and tortuosity of the pampiniform plexus around the testis caused by retrograde blood flow. The association between varicocele and male subfertility has been questioned, thus the usefulness of treating varicocele in order to improve fertility is still a matter of debate. Inhibin B levels reflect the functional state of the seminiferous epithelium, and have been found to be a sensitive index of spermatogenesis. Serum inhibin B levels have bee...

Acylated ghrelin (AG) participates in the modulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis functions, with a predominantly inhibitory effect upon the reproductive system in animals. Animal studies have shown that ghrelin suppresses LH secretion in vivo, decreases LH responsiveness to GnRH in vitro and partially delays the timing of puberty in males. Aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of AG infusion on spontaneous and stimulated gonadotropin secret...

Previous studies suggest that in patients with adrenal incidentalomas (AI) subclinical hypercortisolism (SH) exerts a deleterious effect on bone mineral density (BMD), but scarce data are available about vertebral fractures. We evaluate BMD and prevalence of vertebral fractures in a sample of AI subjects with and without SH.Forty-seven consecutive AI inpatients were evaluated (17M, 30F). The patients were subdivided into two groups: with or without subcl...