Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Active acromegaly induces insulin resistance despite a lean phenotype, both of which reverse by curative surgery. The impact of somatostatin analogue treatment on insulin sensitivity is less certain and may be offset by its anti-lipogenic effects.Aim: To study insulin sensitivity, body composition and extopic lipid content in newly diagnosed patients with acromegaly before and ≥6 months after successful surgical or medical treatment.</p...

Today there exist no treatment that can improve semen quality in more than 85% of infertile men. Interaction between germ and Sertoli cells is critical for sperm production, and Denosumab, an inhibitor of RANKL, has previously been shown to stimulate sperm production in a fraction of infertile men. Here, we show in a humanized RANKL mouse that Denosumab dose dependently increase germ cell proliferation and testicular weight. RANKL was modified so it can be blocked by Denosumab...

Background: GH potently stimulates collagen turnover which underlies its anabolic effects on bone in children, whereas it may promote fibrosis in adults. Fibroblast activation protein-α (FAPα) is involved in collagen turnover by its collagen-cleaving and fibroblast-stimulating activity, which predominantly is expressed in association with fibrosis. FAPα also cleaves and inactivates fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), a multi-faceted metabolic hormone. We have p...

Introduction: Myopathy is a known and dreaded adverse effect of pharmacological glucocorticoid (GC) treatment, but its impact on daily physical activity is not known.Aim: To measure spontaneous physical activity and musculoskeletal function in patients shortly after planned cessation of long-term (>12 weeks) prednisolone treatment.Patients and methods: Baseline data from an ongoing nation-wide prospective study (DOUBLE EDGE &#1...

Background: Adrenal cortical carcinoma (ACC) in children is a rare and aggressive disease. Further characterisation of the presenting features and biochemical markers are needed to support earlier diagnosis. Refractory hypertension related to high cortisol concentrations at presentation, and post-operative decrease in cortisol can be challenging to manage. Focus on endocrine management has not been previously described.Case Series: 34 patients (age 2 wee...

Background: It is well-known that growth hormone (GH) potently stimulates collagen turnover and it is associated with fibrosis in several tissues, but the mechanisms involved in GH-stimulated fibrosis are poorly elucidated. Fibroblast activation protein-α (FAPα) is an enzyme that can cleave collagens and is expressed almost only under pathological conditions such as fibrosis. FAPα also cleaves and inactivates fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), which is a circu...

Background: Growth Hormone (GH) reversibly suppresses insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in skeletal muscle, but less is known about GH effects on glucose metabolism in the basal state. Somatostatin suppresses GH as well as insulin, and may also exert direct effects in skeletal muscle. This may have therapeutic implications in the treatment of acromegalic patients with a somatostatin analogue (SA).Aim: To study basal and insulin-stimulated glucose metabol...

Background: Cross-sectional studies in small and selected populations indicate a relatively high prevalence of incipient and/or subclinical Cushing’s syndrome (CS) in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D), which could have therapeutic implications.Aim: To estimate the prevalence of CS in a large, unselected cohort of recently diagnosed T2D patients.Methods: A total of 384 consecutive out – patients with T2D diagnosed after ...

Background: Hypercortisolism is prevalent in type 2 diabetes (T2D), but analytical and functional uncertainties prevail. Measurement of salivary cortisol is considered an expedient screening method for hypercortisolism, but its usefulness in the context of T2D is uncertain.Aim: To compare late night salivary cortisol (LNSC) with the 1 mg overnight dexamethasone suppression test (DST), which was considered ‘reference standard’, in T2D.<p cla...

Context: Acromegaly is a rare and insidious disease associated with severe somatic morbidity but data on socioeconomic status are scarce.Objective: To study the socioeconomic status in acromegaly in a population based, nationwide follow-up study.Patients and Methods: All incident cases of acromegaly (n = 576) during the period 1997–2010 were included, representing 10.116 years at risk. For every patient, 100 pers...