Endocrine Abstracts

Vascular disrupting agents (VDAs) differ from angiogenesis inhibitors by attacking established tumor blood vessels rather than preventing growth of new ones. We investigated effects of the tumor-VDA ASA404 against neuroendocrine tumors of the gastroenteropancreatic system (GEP-NETs) and adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) 24 h after treatment of BON and NCIh295 tumor bearing mice with ASA404 (A), paclitaxel (P) or the combined administration (A+P). A significant decrease in cell pr...

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) have been demonstrated to impact tumorigenesis in a variety of tumors. As for the adrenal cortex, quantitative real time PCR analyses revealed down-regulation of various BMPs (e.g. BMP2, BMP5) in tissue samples from adrenocortical carcinoma and adrenocortical tumor cell lines in comparison to normal adrenal glands. Other members, by contrast, as seen for BMP6 remained unaltered. Integrity of BMP dependent pathways in the investigated cell lin...

Aldosterone is synthesized acutely upon stimulation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system from the cells of the zona glomerulosa. Several enzymes are involved in this steroidogenic process including the steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR), P450 side chain cleavage enzyme (Cyp11a1) and aldosterone synthase, the product of the gene Cyp11b2.We investigated the short time transcriptional regulation of these genes in wild type mi...

Objective: To evaluate reduced fertility rates and their possible causes in a cohort of well controlled male adult patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia.Methods: We clinically assessed 22 male patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (15 salt wasting form, 7 simple virilising, age 18–49) according to their hormonal control. Further, we performed testicular ultrasound, MRI of the testis and a sperm count of each. As laboratory markers 17-O...

Bone morphogenic proteins (BMPs) have been demonstrated to impact tumorigenesis in a variety of tumors. As for the adrenal cortex, BMP6 has been implicated as an important modulator of aldosterone secretion. To screen for alterations of BMP dependent pathways in adrenal tumorigenesis we performed gene profiling experiments. By comparing human adrenal carcinoma (ACC) against normal adrenal glands (Co) we detected a down-regulation of various BMPs (e.g. BMP2, BMP5) which was fur...

Recent molecular studies suggest a role of ectopic G protein coupled receptors in primary aldosteronism (PA). The clinical relevance of these findings is not known. We therefore combined expression profiling and a clinical testing of hormone responsiveness in patients with primary aldosteronism. Sixteen tissues from aldosterone producing adenomas and 6 normal adrenal glands were subjected to a quantitative PCR for determination of mRNA expression levels of AT2R, GIPR, MC2R, Gn...

Members of the TGFb family of ligands - including bone morphogenic proteins (BMPs) - have been demonstrated to profoundly impact tumorigenesis in a variety of tumor entities. As for the adrenal cortex, BMP6 has been implicated as an important modulator of aldosterone secretion. To screen for alterations of TGFß dependent pathways in adrenal tumorigenesis we performed gene profiling experiments. By comparing human adrenal carcinoma (ACC) against normal adrenal tissue sampl...

Background: Prolactinomas (PRL) are pituitary adenomas mainly characterized by hyperprolactinemia. In addition to the endocrine effects of prolactin, metabolic alterations have been described in PRL patients. Changes in inflammatory parameters have recently been identified in pituitary adenoma patients. Since both, metabolic (MM) and inflammatory markers (IM) showed promising results in characterization/prognosis of tumor patients, it is tempting to speculate whether those mig...

Introduction: Transsphenoidal surgery is the gold standard in Cushing’s disease and recurrence is a major risk. We wondered which impact remission and recurrence might have on control rates of hypercortisolism and conducted a systematic analysis of our cohort of patients with Cushing’s syndrome after undergoing surgical therapy.Methods: We analysed the course of the disease in 74 patients with ACTH-dependent Cushing’s syndrome (63 Cushing&...

Introduction: We report the largest case series of concomitant prolactinoma and aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA), diagnosed in four patients from the German Conn Registry and in three patients at the Hypertension Unit, University of Torino. A disproportionate number (five out of seven) presented with macro-prolactinomas indicating that elevated prolactin (PRL) concentrations may play a role in APA formation. Further, increased expression of PRLR in the zona glomeru...