Endocrine Abstracts

Ghrelin, a newly discovered and unique peptide hormone activates the growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHS-R) to potently induce growth hormone release. Ghrelin treatment rapidly increases serum growth hormone concentrations, as well as stimulating food intake in vivo. Our laboratory was the first to demonstrate that ghrelin increases the proliferation of the prostate cancer cell lines PC3 and LNCaP in vitro and that these cells express the GHS-R at the mRNA and protein le...

The Melanocortin 2 Receptor (MC2R) is best known for its role in the adrenal cortex where it couples the action of ACTH to steroidogenesis, however it is also expressed by the adipocyte. We set out to characterize the up-regulation of the MC2R in the 3T3-L1 fibroblast, which can be induced to undergo adipogenesis.RT-PCR using primers specific to exons 1 and 2 amplified three bands in differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes which sequencing revealed to be distin...

Corticosteroids are major contributors to normal blood pressure control and to hypertension. The diagnosis of 'primary aldosteronism' based on raised aldosterone: renin ratios is now common although demonstration of an adrenocortical tumour remains rare. Moreover, the relationship between aldosterone and renin or angiotensin II in essential hypertension is often disturbed, suggestive of altered control of aldosterone biosynthesis. Aldosterone is synthesised from 11-deoxycortic...

Introduction: Vitamin D insufficiency is common in subjects with type 2 diabetes. Observational studies suggest that vitamin D plays a role in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. However, results of intervention studies have been inconsistent. We investigated the effects of improving vitamin D status on insulin sensitivity and inflammatory markers in type 2 diabetic patients with vitamin D insufficiency.Methods: A double blind, randomized, placebo contr...

MEN1 germline mutations are identified in 70% of the familial forms of MEN1 and about 10%of the sporadic cases. Little is known about clinical differences between MEN1 with and without identification of MEN1 germline mutation particularly in terms of PA characteristics.Aim: To compare the clinical features of PA in MEN1 cases with and without germline MEN1 mutation and sporadic cases of PA. Patients and methods: Data were obtained in...

Cushing Disease (CD) is a serious endocrine disorder that is primarily caused by an ACTH-secreting pituitary adenoma. Current treatments of CD present low efficiency in controlling the tumor mass growth and reducing the release of ACTH. This work investigates a possible new therapy for the treatment of pituitary tumors. Using a nanoparticle extract (nanoOse) of a typical Brazilian palm tree, we verify the in vitro effects of this extract on a ACTH-secreting mouse pituit...

Incidental thyroid carcinoma (IC) is defined as a tumor diagnosed at histology after surgery for benign diseases and without a preoperative diagnosis of malignancy. Since the prevalence of IC reported in the literature is extremely variable (4.6–17%), mostly due to the limited number of cases, we aimed to study the features of IC in our large series. We retrospectively evaluated 1955 patients who consecutively underwent total thyroidectomy for non malignant diseases from ...

Background: Many patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) are not reaching glycemic targets even by using different combinations of antidiabetic drugs, including insulin. On the other hand, intensified multidrug therapy is associated with increased risk of severe side effects and individualized selection of medication is essential. The aim of our study is to evaluate efficiency of personalized pharmacotherapy according to the genotype and phenotype of T2D patients.<p class="abs...

Introduction: Insulinomas are the most common form of functioning pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (NET) with an estimated incidence of 1–3/million per year. Less than 10% are malignant and rarely with distant metastases, carrying a poor prognosis.Case report: We report a case of a 73-years-old woman attended at our ER for recurrent syncope, with irrelevant medical history. Several radiology exams were preformed, revealing numerous liver metastases ...

Activating mutations of the RET proto-oncogene, encoding a tyrosine kinase receptor, are associated with inherited syndromes, MEN2A and MEN2B, and with both familial and sporadic medullary thyroid cancer (MTC). Single base-pair missense mutations in the extracellular cysteine-rich domain are responsible for the majority of MEN2A and familial MTC (FMTC) cases. Rarely, somatic deletions and germline duplications of variable segments of the gene have been reported in spora...