Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Bronchial carcinoids (BCs) are rare neuroendocrine tumors that are still orphan of medical treatment. Human BC primary cultures may display resistance to everolimus, an inhibitor of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), in terms of cell viability reduction.Aim: To assess whether the novel dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor, NVP-BEZ235, may be effective in everolimus-resistant human BC tissues and cell lines. In addition, we search for possible mark...

Aim: To describe characteristics and outcomes of Italian patients with hypopituitarism participating in HypoCCS.Methods: Study population was stratified by max GH peak (mGHp) and BMI. Baseline variables included demographic characteristics, type of deficit, smoking habits; variables analyzed over time included weight, Framingham cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, lipids, GH dose.Results: Italian subpopulation included 342 patients ...

Nonfunctioning adenomas (NFA) are 30% of all pituitary adenomas. Transphenoidal surgery is the first line therapy, but recurrences are frequent (12% al 69%). NFA treatment and follow-up are controversial. Aim of our study was to evaluate the recurrence prevalence and the factors associated with tumor aggressiveness in patients with NFA. We studied 30 patients that underwent surgery: 14 patients (group A, 7F, 3.92±12.48 years) with and 16 patients (group B, 6F, 56.5±1...

Dopamine (DA) therapy of non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFA) can result in tumor stabilization and shrinkage. However, this effect is not always apparent and the mechanism of action is still unknown. Previous evidence showed that DA inhibits pituitary Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor expression (VEGF), that, in turn, is related to pituitary tumor growth. Our study aimed at clarifying whether VEGF secretion modulation might mediate the effects of DA agonists and chimeric...

Somatostatin (SRIF) analogs have been employed in medical therapy of non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFA), with contrasting results. Previous evidence showed that SRIF can exert its antiproliferative effects by reducing Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) secretion and action, and that VEGF expression may be related to pituitary tumor growth. The aim of our study was to clarify the possible effects of a multireceptor SRIF ligand on VEGF secretion and cell proliferati...

Introduction: Myotonic dystrophy (DM) type 1 and 2 are multisystemic autosomal dominant disorders with visceral obesity, insulin resistance and hypogonadism. The prevalence of metabolic risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD) in DM is not well defined, particularly in patients affected by DM2, a milder and clinical challenging condition.Methods: We assessed the frequency of CAD risk factors in 31 male DM1 (44±11 years) and 13 male DM2 (54&#17...

A highly polymorphic microsatellite in the IGF1 gene promoter, composed of variable cytosine-adenine (CA) repeats (n=10–24) has been linked to IGF1 serum concentrations in normal, acromegalic and GHD subjects with conflicting results. Aim of this study was to investigate whether this polymorphism may influence the clinical and biochemical characteristics of adult patients with GHD (n=97). Moreover, the response to 12-month rhGH replacement in terms of IGF1 l...

Patients (pts) with adrenal incidentaloma (AI) may show an increased incidence of several cardiovascular risk factors, as obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia. As previous data suggested that the increased cardiovascular risk in these pts could be in part mediated by alterations of adipokines, this study was aimed to evaluate plasma IL-6, resistin, CT-1 levels in a wide series of pts with AI.Ninety-three pts (42 males; 51 females; ag...

Previous evidences have suggested that in adults with organic hypopituitarism the condition of GH deficiency (GHD) could mask the presence of other pituitary deficits. In our experience, both central hypothyroidism and hypoadrenalism were unmasked during rhGH therapy in adults with GHD due to central organic lesions. Few and conflicting information are available about the relationship among GHD, rhGH therapy and gonadal function. Aim of the present study was to investigate the...

Background: There is a clear relationship between obesity and carbohydrate metabolism alterations (CMA), such as impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and T2D. OGTT is used for the diagnosis of those alterations, but is not performed in case of normal fasting glucose values (NFG). Moreover, BMI underestimates the diagnosis of obesity and body composition alteration can be crucial to the development of abnormal carbohydrate metabolism. This study aimed to examine the discriminating ...