Endocrine Abstracts

Celiac disease is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disorder often associated with other endocrine autoimmune diseases, such as type I diabetes mellitus, Addison’s disease and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. In these patients, LH, FSH and GH secretion has been poorly investigated. Aim of this study is to evaluate anterior pituitary function, and in particular hypotalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis and GH-IGF-I axis, in adult patients with treated celiac disease. For this ...

Sphingosine kinase 1 (SphK1) is the enzyme deputed to the phosphorylation of sphingosine in sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P). S1P promotes ERK phosphorylation with increasing cellular proliferation, AKT phosphorylation, that induces apoptosis resistance and cell migration. It has been recently demonstrated that SphK1 is overexpressed in adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) in comparison to adenomas (ACA) and that a high expression is related to worse outcome. Different SphK1 inhibitors...

Background: Psychopathological distress is a significant burden in acromegaly, mostly in terms of depression and anxiety. Patients are also reported to experience an impairment in cognitive performance, yet literature is highly heterogeneous.M&M: We conducted a cross-sectional study recruiting 44 acromegalic patients (59% females, 29.5% with active disease, 70.5% controlled/in remission) referring to our tertiary center between 2011 and 2023 and 40 h...

Background: In the last few decades, the association between pituitary disorders and cardiovascular disease has been demonstrated. Furthermore, the importance of gender as a non-modifiable risk of factor is increasingly emerging.Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data of 112 patients diagnosed with nonfunctioning pituitary tumor (NFPT) attending the outpatient clinic at our tertiary center. In this study we report only preliminary data of the retrospec...

The aim of this study was to evaluate in a long follow-up time patients with acromegaly successfully treated by transphenoidal surgery (TNS) in order to establish the recurrence rate and the need of subsequent follow up.Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data of 283 acromegalic patients (168 females, mean age: 44.2 ±12.9 years) who underwent TNS for a GH secreting pituitary adenoma between 1980 and 2020, on regular follow-up at two Pituitary Units...

Somatic mutations in the ubiquitin specific peptidase 8 (USP8) gene have been associated with higher levels of somatostatin (SS) receptor subtype 5 (SSTR5) in adrenocorticotroph hormone (ACTH)-secreting pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (PitNETs). However, a correlation between the USP8 mutational status and favorable responses to pasireotide, the somatostatin multi-receptor ligand acting especially on SSTR5, has not been investigated yet. Here, we studied the impact of USP8 mut...

During the spring of 2020, a national lockdown was adopted in Italy to prevent COVID-19 pandemic spread. Restrictive measures have been associated with impaired psychological outcome in the general population. As patients with Cushing’s Syndrome (CS), including Cushing’s disease (CD), adrenal CS (ACS), and ectopic CS (ECS), are reportedly associated with a higher prevalence of anxiety, stress susceptibility, depression, and maniac episodes, during both active disease...

The main target of pharmacological therapy for growth hormone (GH)-secreting pituitary tumors (GH-PitNET) is the somatostatin receptor type 2 (SST2). However, approximately half of patients treated with octreotide, an SST2 agonist, show a low response rate or are octreotide-resistant. Here we present mechanistic data that shows co-treatment with simufilam, a novel oral therapeutic candidate, enhances sensitivity to octreotide. We previously showed that the cytoskeleton protein...

The cytoskeletal actin-binding protein filamin A (FLNA) is poorly expressed in adrenocortical carcinomas (ACC) compared to adenomas (ACA), and this might contribute to sustain the increased cell proliferation by downregulating IGF1R expression and its downstream signaling. In mouse neural progenitor cells, increased protein expression levels of the CDK1 kinase Wee1 have been found after loss of FLNA. This protein has a leading role in regulating the G2-M checkpoint and functio...

Adrenocortical carcinomas (ACC) are rare endocrine tumors that originate in the cortex of the adrenal gland. They are characterized by the overexpression of insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2), whose bond with two tyrosine-kinase receptors, IGF1R and IR, activates a cancer-promoting signalling cascade. Another component of the IGF system is mannose 6-phosphate/insulin-like growth factor 2 receptor (IGF2R), a scavenger receptor able to bind specifically IGF2. Its main role is t...