Endocrine Abstracts

Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a rare neuroendocrine tumor of the parafollicular thyroid C cells. Although somatostatin (SS) receptors (SSTs) are expressed by MTCs, treatment with octreotide, specific for SST2, has shown poor efficacy in reducing MTC proliferation, whereas pasireotide, a multi-receptor SS analogue with preferential binding to SST5, has recently demonstrated antiproliferative effects in persistent postoperative MTCs. In vitro data in human MTC ce...

TNM 8th edition introduces changes in the staging of patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC). This study aims at assessing the ability of TNM 8th edition in predicting structural recurrence of DTC.480 DTC patients were retrospectively evaluated by 7th and 8th editions of TNM staging systems in relationship with risk stratification, response to therapy and recurrence of disease as defined by 2015 American Thyroid Association (ATA) guidelines. As compared to the 7th...

Introduction: Pituitary incidentalomas are lesions discovered on an imaging study performed for an unrelated reason. Their frequency varies among 0.2–38% and it is continuously increasing due to the development of neuroimaging techniques. The aim of the study is to investigate clinical and biochemical characteristics of 205 consecutive patients (70% female, mean age 53.6±18.2 years) with incidental pituitary adenoma (IPA) followed at our center from 1990 to present.<...

Introduction: A highly polymorphic microsatellite, comprising a variable length of a cytosine–adenosine (CA) repeat sequence, has been identified in the promoter region of IGF-I gene. The number of CA repeats ranges between 10 and 24 and the most common allele in the Caucasian population contains 19 CA (192 bp) repeats. Several studies investigated the relationship between this polymorphism and IGF-I levels, with conflicting results. Aim of this study was to investigate t...

Introduction: Generously supported by IPSEN)-->Acromegaly is a rare and insidious disease associated with an increased morbidity and mortality. Trans-sphenoidal (TNS) surgery remains the primary therapeutic option, in particular for intrasellar microadenomas and noninvasive macroadenomas. Aims of this study were to describe diagnostic features and to verify the impact of TNS surgery on treatment of acromegaly over three decades, befo...

In human adipocytes the cAMP-dependent pathway mediates signals originating from the activation of beta-adrenergic receptors, thus playing a key role in the regulation of important metabolic processes such as lipolysis and thermogenesis. CyclicAMP effects are mainly mediated by cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA), a tetrameric enzyme composed by two catalytic subunits associated with two regulatory (R) subunits. There are four different R subunit genes and proteins (R1A, R1B, ...

Cushing’s Disease (CD) is a rare condition mostly caused by an ACTH-secreting pituitary tumor resulting in excess of cortisol release by the adrenal glands. Although pasireotide is the only pituitary-targeted drug approved to treat adult patients, many side effects are encountered during the clinical practice and a curative therapy for CD is still challenging. Recently, the discover of somatic mutations in the deubiquitinase USP8 gene in a subset of patients has ...

Cushing’s Disease (CD) is a rare condition characterized by an overproduction of ACTH by an ACTH-secreting pituitary tumor resulting in excess of cortisol release by the adrenal glands. Somatic mutations in the deubiquitinases USP8 and USP48, and in BRAF genes, have been reported in a subset of patients affected by CD. Aim of this study was to characterize the genetic profile of a cohort of 66 patients with ACTH-secreting tumors, searching for somatic mutations in USP8, U...

BackgroundWe provided the first description of thyrotoxicosis due to atypical thyroiditis in patients hospitalised for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic disease (Covid-19), not associated with neck pain, more common in men, correlated with disease severity and coexisting with non-thyroidal illness syndrome. Classic viral subacute thyroiditis is often followed by permanent thyroid dysfunction and autoimmunity, thus we h...

Sphingosine kinase 1 (SphK1) is the enzyme deputed to the phosphorylation of sphingosine in sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P). S1P promotes ERK phosphorylation with increasing cellular proliferation, AKT phosphorylation, that induces apoptosis resistance and cell migration. It has been recently demonstrated that SphK1 is overexpressed in adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) in comparison to adenomas (ACA) and that a high expression is related to worse outcome. Different SphK1 inhibitors...