Endocrine Abstracts

Background: The so-called silent pituitary adenomas are a subtype of pituitary tumors showing positive immunoreactivity for one or more pituitary hormones, but without any clinical manifestations for oversecretion of these hormones. They are clinically labeled as non-functional pituitary adenomas (NFPA), some of them with particularly aggressive behavior. Rare patients might present with big plurihormonal pituitary tumors which ‘whisper’ hormones (GH or ACTH) and pro...

BackgroundDiabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness in working-age adults in developed world. Derangements of ubiquitine-proteasome system and telomere length have been associated with microangiopathy in diabetes. Until now, limited data are available on above markers in diabetic retinopathy in type 1 diabetes (T1D).AimThe aim of this work was to compare serum proteasome concentration and telomer...

Objectives: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and thyroid disorders have separately been linked to adverse pregnancy and neonatal outcomes. Even small variations in thyroid function within the normal range may influence fetal growth. Previous data have shown that metformin-treatment of pregnant women with PCOS reduced late miscarriages and preterm births, and resulted in less decrease of fT4 compared to placebo. Moreover, metformin exposure in utero altered the offspring anthro...

Introduction: Sodium Glucose Co-transporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) are a novel class of glucose-lowering therapies that have demonstrated prognostic benefit in the management diabetes, heart failure and renal impairment. National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance recommends offering SGLT2i, in addition to metformin, first-line in individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and chronic heart failure/ established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Howev...

Efnb2 encodes for the ligand Ephrinb2 that binds to its cognate Eph receptor, with which plays an integral role in angiogenesis, stem cell regulation and tumorigenesis. Using a pituitary-specific Cre-driver (Hesx1Cre), we conditionally deleted Efnb2 from the early stem/progenitor cells (PSCs) of the developing pituitary gland. We found that Efnb2 is expressed in PSCs both during embryogenesis and adulthood, suggesting its...

Background: Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is the main cause of end-stage renal disease It is defined by glomerular filtration rate (GFR) impairment and/or presence of increased urinary albumin excretion (UAE). However, these parameters are nonspecific and somewhat delayed manifestations of renal damage. Thus, earlier DKD new biomarkers are strongly warranted.Objective: To investigate the urinary peptidomics profile of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) patien...

Purpose: Methimazole (MMI) is a widely used antithyroid agent for first-line treatment of hyperthyroidism. A warning has been recently issued by the European Medicine Agency (EMA) regarding a potential increased risk of acute pancreatitis (AP) in MMI users, based on evidences from published case reports and post-marketing surveillance. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between MMI treatment and the diagnosis of AP in drug users.Mat...

In vitro and in vivo studies suggest that catecholamines, in addition to their hemodynamic effect, exert a direct influence on the vascular wall, leading to eutrophic and hypertrophic remodeling. This finding is in agreement with that recently reported by our group on patients with pheochromocytoma (PHEO) who show carotid intima media thickness (IMT) and vascular fibrosis higher than essential hypertensives matched for classic cardiovascular risk factors, includi...

Introduction: Adipocyte fatty acid binding protein (A-FABP) is mainly expressed in adipocytes, and circulating A-FABP has been associated with markers of obesity. Women with PCOS are at increased risk of developing abdominal obesity what could be related to serum concentration of A-FABP.Aim: The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationships between serum concentration of A-FABP and parameters of obesity e.g. waist to hip ratio (WHR) and t...

In an attempt to define novel genetic loci involved in the pathophysiology of primary aldosteronism a mutagenesis screen after treatment with the alkylating agent N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea was established for the parameter aldosterone. One of the established mouse lines with hyperaldosteronism was phenotypically and genetically characterized. Affected animals showed an increased aldosterone to renin ratio (males unaffected, 1.1±0.1 pg/ml per ng per ml per hour v...