Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF-21) is a recently discovered hormone acting as a central regulator of metabolism via adaptation of glucose homeostasis, insulin sensitivity, and ketogenesis. While acute systemic inflammatory conditions come along with profound alterations of metabolism, the role of FGF-21 in these acute phase responses is still unknown.Methods: This is a secondary analysis of two randomized, controlled trials in patients pr...

Background: Pasireotide is available in twice-daily subcutaneous (sc) and long-acting intramuscular (im) formulations. Pasireotide sc depot is an investigational extended-release sc formulation designed for improved handling and administration. Results are reported from a Phase I dose-escalating study.Methods: All subjects received a single dose of pasireotide sc (600 μg) and were randomized 12:2:2 to pasireotide sc depot as a single upper-thigh inj...

Klotho (Kl), initially identified as an antiaging gene, plays a critical role in the regulation of renal and adrenal dependent fluid homeostasis. A previous study reported that haplodeficiency of Kl in mice resulted in increased aldosterone synthase (CYP11B2) expression, elevated plasma aldosterone and high blood pressure. This phenotype was presumed to result from diminished Kl expression in zona glomerulosa (zG) of the adrenal. To examine whether Kl expressed in zG is indeed...

Introduction: Primary aldosteronism (PA) is a form of secondary hypertension, affecting 2.4% of the hypertensive population. It is caused by autonomous overproduction of aldosterone by either a unilateral aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA) or by bilateral adrenal hyperplasia (BAH). Subtyping is crucial, because PA is cured by adrenalectomy in APA and is treated by medication in BAH. The reference standard in subtyping PA is adrenal vein sampling (AVS). However, it is invasive...

Introduction: Acromegaly is a rare endocrinologic disease most commonly caused by an excess of growth hormone (GH) produced by a benign pituitary adenoma. Besides diverse systemic manifestations, acromegaly is also associated with a range of oral-dental problems. To date limited research has been conducted on how oral-dental pathologies affect the oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in patients with acromegaly and growth hormone-producing pituitary adenomas. To our kn...

Objective: To evaluate the impact of the genomic deletion of exon 3 in the growth hormone receptor (d3GHR) on co-morbidities of acromegaly in a well-characterized cohort of patients with long-term remission of acromegaly.Design: Cross sectional study.Methods: The presence of the d3GHR polymorphism was assessed in 86 acromegalic patients and related to clinical outcome, i.e. anthropometric parameters, osteoarthritis, and the metabol...

Metabolic changes in Type-2 Diabetes-Mellitus (T2DM) make patients more prone to develop osteoporosis and delayed bone healing. We hypothesize that microRNAs could be involved in the underlying mechanism and used as biomarkers in this context. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed microRNAs in samples from Zucker Diabetic Fatty (ZDF) rats, a T2DM model with reduced bone healing and bone mass. 11-week-old male ZDF and wildtype rats with a femur subcritical defect were treated wi...

Introduction: In metformin-associated lactic acidosis with renal dysfunction inhibition of hepatic gluconeogenesis by drug accumulation may aggravate fasting induced-ketoacidosis. We report the occurrence of metformin-associated lactic acidosis with concurrent euglycemic ketoacidosis in three patients with renal failure.Cases: The first patient was a 79-year-old woman who suffered from chronic kidney disease stage IIIa after traumatic uninephrectomy, and...

The glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) is a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) expressed in various tissues such as brain and pancreas where it contributes to the regulation of energy expenditure and metabolism. Due to its involvement in glucose-dependent release of insulin from pancreatic beta cells, the GLP-1R has become a blockbuster target for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Despite this, debate still exists about the exact distribution of the GLP-1R throughout the...

Introduction: Thyroid hormones (TH) are essential regulators of metabolism and increase energy expenditure (EE). Mitochondria-rich brown adipose tissue (BAT) is specialised in thermogenesis and significantly contributes to EE. BAT contains essential components of TH action but TH transporters like MCT8 have not been characterised so far. As direct effects on O2 consumption and mitochondrial action have not been investigated before we tested MCT8 expression and direct effects o...