Endocrine Abstracts

Dysregulated T helper cells and vitamin D (VD) deficiency are important factors in the pathogenesis of Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D). Therefore, we investigated the immune effects of high dose VD-treatment on gene expression (GE) pattern in T helper cells (Th) before and after VD-therapy in patients with T1D.Methods: Seven T1D patients with 25(OH)D3 levels below 20 ng/ml received 3 months 4000 IU/d Vigantol oil. The 25(OH)D3 plasma...

Objective: Recent studies of perimenopausal women suggest that follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) levels may be associated with atherosclerosis, independent of actions of estradiol (E2). Whether FSH is related to atherosclerosis in older postmenopausal women, who have completed the menopausal transition, remains unknown.Approach: We assessed the relation of FSH and E2 levels with carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) among 588...

Introduction: Kisspeptin is the endogenous ligand for the G-protein coupled receptor-54 (GPR54 or KiSS1R). During human pregnancy, maternal levels of placental kisspeptin dramatically increase 7000-fold. The physiological significance of this is unknown. A potential target could be the fetal adrenal cortex (FAC), which undergoes rapid growth from 10 weeks gestation, predominantly of the inner fetal zone (FZ). The FZ expresses the steroidogenic enzymes needed for conversion of ...

Familial glucocorticoid deficiency (FGD;OMIM 202200) results from the inability of the adrenal cortex to produce cortisol in response to ACTH stimulation. Half of all cases are caused by mutations in MC2R, MRAP or STAR. SNP array genotyping of FGD patients of unknown aetiology mapped a disease locus to chromosome 5p13-q12. Targeted exome sequencing of 5p13-q12 in one patient identified a homozygous mutation, p.Ala533Val, in nicotinamide nucleotide transhyd...

Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is a severe disease caused by an endogenous glucocorticoid excess and it is correlated to an increased morbidity and mortality especially for sepsis and cardiovascular diseases, while hypertension, glucose intolerance or diabetes mellitus, and dyslipidemia are the most common systemic complications. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the mortality and morbidity of patients with CS admitted at the Department of Endocrinology and Onc...

Cabergoline (CAB) was demonstrated to be effective in normalizing cortisol secretion in a subset of patients with Cushing’s disease (CD). The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of chronic treatment with CAB on clinical, metabolic and hormonal parameters in CD patients. Twenty-six patients with CD (11 males, 15 females, 12–72 years) entered the study. Patients were divided into two groups, responders and non responders, according to the achievement or not of ...

Introduction: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare, but highly malignant endocrine tumor. Surgery is the primary choice of treatment. In case of inoperable disease or tumor recurrence, therapy with the adrenolytic drug mitotane is usually applied. Plasma mitotane concentrations of >14 mg/l (50 μM) seem required for an effect on tumor mass. Despite its clinical use, the effects of mitotane on cell proliferation and hormone production have been poorly investigated <...

Somatostatin (SSTRs) and dopamine (DRs) receptors are expressed in adrenal tumors. It has been demonstrated in pituitary and neuroendocrine tumors that somatostatin-dopamine chimeric molecules, namely dopastatins, which bind both somatostatin (SST2 and/or SST5) and dopamine (D2) receptors, exert a more potent action compared with the single receptor agonists in experimental settings. The aims of this study were to evaluate the expression of DRs and SSTRs, and the effects of do...

The dopamine agonist cabergoline has been found to be effective in inducing normalization of cortisol secretion in 25–50% of patients with Cushing’s disease after long-term treatment. Moreover, tumor shrinkage have been documented in selected patients with pituitary corticotroph tumors. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of cabergoline withdrawal in patients with a stable normalization of cortisol secretion and stable or absent visualization of p...

Subclinical Cushing’s syndrome (SCS) is a mild autonomous cortisol hypersecretion without specific clinical syndrome of glucocorticoid excess. The aim of this study was to compare cardiac structure and function in patients with adrenal incidentaloma. Twenty patients and 20 sex- and age-matched healthy controls entered the study: among patients, 11 had SCS and the remaining nine had normal cortisol secretion All patients and controls were submitted to Doppler echocardiogra...