Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Possible Autonomous Cortisol Secretion (pACS) is a condition found in 1–29% of patients with adrenal incidentalomas. The diagnosis of pACS has been variably associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events and mortality. However, dedicated studies describing the morphologic and functional cardiac alterations in these patients are lacking.Aim: To compare the cardiovascular features of patients with pACS to those with nonfunction...

One third of diabetic patients suffer from Diabetic Nephropathy (DN) that leads to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). The molecular pathways involved remain underexplored. We showed that chronic phosphodiesterase-5 inhibition (PDE5i) improve vascular inflammation [1] and tissue remodelling, reducing proteinuria [2] in murine diabetes. Our aim was to investigate the effect of PDE5i on animal and human models of DN.Materials and methods: 16 mice were randomly...

Introduction: Insulin resistance is a well-known hallmark of the metabolic syndrome (MetS), and it detrimentally affects also protein metabolism, favoring to the decline of lean body mass. The aim of the present study was to explore muscle strength (as a functional consequence of sarcopenic obesity) and muscle quality (namely, myosteatosis) in women with and without the Metabolic Syndrome (MetS).Methods: Study participants were enrolled at the Sapienza U...

Background: Hypopituitarism can occur post trans-sphenoidal adenomectomy(TSA). Accurate prediction of HPA axis recovery would inform hydrocortisone replacement strategies but there are limited studies on this. In our centre, HPA axis is assessed with pre-operative short synacthen test (SST), day-8 post TSA 9am cortisol and 6-week post-TSA SST. Patients are commenced on hydrocortisone post TSA until 6 weeks review.Methods: We performed a single-centre, lo...

Adrenal insufficiency (AI) requires life-long glucocorticoid (GC) treatment, which is associated with an increased risk of metabolic syndrome (MS), probably due to cortisol overexposure for multiple drug daily doses, together with an impairment of quality of life (QoL). Moreover treatment compliance (TC) is reported to be suboptimal in AI patients. The current study aimed at investigating the impact of the switch from twice/thrice daily conventional GCs to once daily dual-rele...

Background: Vitamin D is an important modulator of cell growth, differentiation and death in normal and neoplastic cells. Its actions are mediated by vitamin D receptor (VDR), which heterodimerizes with nuclear retinoid X receptors (RXRα). Recently, it has been suggested that vitamin D system have a role in male reproduction. The aim of this study was to investigate the VDR and RXRα localization in normal and neoplastic human male reproductive tissues.<p class="a...

Rationale and aims: Aberrant activation or “reactivation” of androgen receptor in the course of androgen-ablation therapy shows a potential cause for the development of castration-resistant prostate cancer. This study tested the hypothesis that belinostat (PXD101), a potent pan histone deacetylase inhibitor, may potentiate hormonal therapy and prevent onset of castration resistant phenotype Material and Methods. A panel of human prostate cancer (Pca) cells with grade...

We hypothesized that hormonal therapy favors the development of the hormone-resistant (HR) phenotype through epigenetic mechanisms. Human prostate cancer (Pca) tissues and in vitro and in vivo models were used to verify this hypothesis. We demonstrated that tumor cells continuously treated with BCLT or cultured in androgen depleted medium progressively acquire higher DNMT activity and expression. Increased DNMT expression and activity also paralleled the up-regul...

Worldwide numerous active individuals take phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors (PDE-5i), furthermore, to our knowledge, the effects of these drugs on hormone secretion has not been adequately investigated. In particular, considering that a) PDE-5i influence NO bioavailability, b) NO is one of the mediators of the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis response to stress, and, c) physical exercise-related stress activate HPA axis, we investigated whether PDE-5i inf...

Introduction: Glucose metabolism impairment is a common complication of acromegaly. Pegvisomant (PEG) is used as second-line medical treatment in acromegaly. Data from literature suggest a positive effect of PEG on glucose metabolism but a meta-analysis has never been performed.Aim: To address the following questions: i) does PEG affect glucose metabolism? ii) does the effect correlate with disease control?Methods: We performed a m...