Endocrine Abstracts

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare and highly aggressive endocrine neoplasm, with limited therapeutic option. Activating β-catenin somatic mutations are observed in ACC and associated with a poor outcome. Activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway seems to play a major role in ACC aggressiveness, and might be a promising therapeutic target. The H295 cell line derived from an ACC harbors an activating β-catenin mutation. We herein assess the in vi...

Introduction: Primary aldosteronism (PA) is the most frequent curable form of hypertension. Hypokalemia is a late symptom of PA. Consequently, PA often is not diagnosed for many years. Our aim was to identify clinical and laboratory parameters in a large cohort of PA patients obtained during their first assessment.Methods: 96 consecutive patients prospectively studied since 2008 at the German Conn’s Registry Center in Munich were eligible for this s...

Recently, we investigated effects of the Tumor-VDA ASA404 in tumor models for neuroendocrine tumors of the gastroenteropancreatic system and adrenocortical carcinoma 24 hours after treatment of BON and NCIh295 tumor bearing mice with ASA404 (A), paclitaxel (P) or the combination (A+P). We detected for BON tumors extensive necrotic areas as well as a significant decrease in cell proliferation, increase of apoptotic cells and reduction of microvessels after A or A+P treatment wh...

Adrenal crisis (AC) is a life threatening condition in chronic adrenal insufficiency (AI). Furthermore, recent data demonstrate increased mortality in this patient group.Incidence and causes of adrenal crisis as well as general morbidity and hospitalization was assessed in 472 patients in a prospective trial. Patients were contacted via mail every 6 months and in case of AC additionally by phone to evaluate the exact circumstances of AC. Criteria for AC ...

Only a few cell lines are available for endocrine tumors which furthermore do not reflect heterogenous functional properties and specific therapeutic response rates of individual tumors. To facilitate patient individual treatments and thereby to optimize therapeutic efficacy, we are aiming at the development and characterisation of patient-individual tumor models. Pieces of surgical tumor specimen from four adrenocortical carcinomas, one aldosterone producing adenoma, one pheo...

Overexpression and aberrant activation of the insulin-like growth factor system plays a key role in tumor cell proliferation and tumorigenesis in many human tumors. Different therapies targeting IGF1-receptor (IGF1-R) have been developed and currently, some of these agents are evaluated in preclinical and early clinical trials with promising results. Moreover, recent studies have demonstrated that combined treatments with doxorubicin, enhance the efficiency of anti-IGF1-R ther...

To date, the in depth analysis of the key molecular mechanisms involved in functional autonomy and tumor formation in aldosterone producing adenomas has been hampered by the rarity of the disease and the lack of adequate tumor cell lines. Herein, we cultivated a primary cell culture of an aldosterone producing adenoma taken from a 40 year old male patient with a left sided adrenal tumor mass. The cells have been passaged 24 times and still continue to grow after nearly 11 mont...

Acromegalic patients under treatment with Octreotide LAR (Oct), 10, 20 or 30 mg were switched to Lanreotide Autogel 120 mg (Lan) at different dose intervals: 56, 42 and 28 days respectively. Just before the fourth Lan injection, IGF-I values were measured and the dose interval for the final three injections adjusted accordingly: if IGF-I values were between 1 and 2 standard deviations (S.D.) above the age and sex related mean value, no change in dose-interval wa...

Radioactive and transgenic tracing experiments indicate that in the adult adrenal stem cells persist in the periphery of the cortex, which migrate centripetally and populate the inner cortical zones upon differentiation. However, investigation of these cells has been hampered by the lack of known marker genes. Vital Hoechst dye exclusion has been described as a method for isolating a side population (SP) from mouse bone marrow, which was enriched with stem cells. Utilizing thi...

20alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (20αHSD) has been initially characterized as a progesterone metabolizing enzyme of the ovary mandatory for the final reduction of progesterone blood levels before parturition. As the exact zonal distribution and regulation of adrenal 20αHSD has not been defined, adrenal 20αHSD expression and activity was determined by western blotting, immunohistochemistry and enzymatic assays in wild type BALB/c mice of both genders at diffe...