Endocrine Abstracts

The causes of panhypopituitarism are well known and pituitary metastases is a recognised but rare cause. It can often be difficult to diagnose because the non-specific features of malignancy mask those of pituitary involvement.We present the case of a 73 year old gentleman who complained of fatigue and weight loss. He had recently been treated for a radiographically proven bronchopneumonia. Endocrine checks suggested secondary hypothyroidism however (TSH...

Hypopituitarism due to neurosarcoidosis is mainly seen in patients with extensive systemic disease. However, pituitary involvement can occur without other classical features of the disease, as illustrated by the following cases.Case 1: An Afro-Caribbean male presented in 1986 with failure of pubertal development aged 22. Initial investigations demonstrated hypothalamic hypogonadism, secondary hypothyroidism and a suboptimal cortisol response to hypoglyca...

Fenretinide (4-hydroxyphenyl retinamide, 4-HPR) is a synthetic retinoid that exhibits anti-neoplastic properties and clinical trials indicate a potential chemopreventative action of 4HPR in the development of ovarian cancer. Although the mechanism of 4HPR action remains largely unknown, ceramide has been recently proposed as a cellular signal.The aim of the present study is to investigate in vitro the action of 4HPR and the retinoic acid receptor ...

Male hypogonadism can occur either due to disorders at the hypothalamic or pituitary levels or as a result of primary testicular failure. Conventionally, testosterone is replaced by depot intramuscular injections of testoterone esters or as implants producing non-physiological levels of serum testosterone. Human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) given twice-weekly s.c., stimulates endogenous testosterone secretion through its LH like action resulting in physiological serum testost...

With treatment of endocrine myopathies increased proximal muscle strength is generally attributed to increased bulk. However in hypothyroid myopathy individuals have been shown to increase strength despite reduction in bulk.We studied 25 hyperthyroid and 27 hypothyroid randomly selected patients, measuring body weight, quadriceps and deltoid force using strain gauge techniques or with a myometer. Cross sectional area (CSA) of the quadriceps and Right de...

Differential changes in placental or fetal growth can result from chronic alterations in the environment depending on their timing and duration. These include thermal stimulation and/or altered photoperiod whose effects may be mediated in part by increased maternal food intake and/or repartitioning of available nutrients across the placenta. Fetal growth can subsequently be enhanced due to increased abundance of fetal anabolic hormones including prolactin. In particular, fetal...

Introduction: One goal of diabetic regenerative medicine is to instructively convert mature pancreatic exocrine cells into insulin-producing cells. We recently reported that liganded thyroid hormone receptor α (TRα) plays a critical role in expansion of the β-cell mass during postnatal development.Materials and Methods: AdTRα is a recombinant adenoviral vector that expresses human TRα1 under the control of the cytomegalovirus pro...

Background: Adrenocortical carcinomas (ACC) are rare tumors with an incidence of 1–2 per million. Although rare, it is an aggressive endocrine cancer with poor prognosis. As of today there is no reliable diagnostic biomarker to distinguish benign tumors from malignant tumors. Global changes in DNA methylation and DNA promoter hypermethylation are important events in tumorigenesis. Promoter hypermethylation can cause silencing of tumour suppressor genes or lead to abnormal...

Background: Dyslipidemia is a well-known manifestation of thyroid dysfunction and there is evidence of an association between hypothyroidism and coronary heart disease. Recently, small dense low-density lipoprotein (sdLDL) has been linked with development of cardiovascular disease. But relations between thyroid function and sdLDL remain incompletely understood.Objective: Our objective was to determine whether replacement therapy with thyroxine for patien...

Introduction: The MS is a cluster of metabolic risk factors which are closely associated with insulin resistance and hypoadiponectinemia. The HMW adiponectin has been acknowledged as a predictive marker for MS. The prevalence of MS increases worldwide. Recently, the prevalence of MS among Estonian adults was estimated to be 26%. In the current study, we aimed to compare the utility of HMW adiponectin and HOMA-IR for the identification of MS.Methods: Our ...