Endocrine Abstracts

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a psychiatric disorder featuring multiple endocrine abnormalities, comprising a decrease in IGF-I production and an increase in GH concentrations. This resistance to GH action may contribute to impaired haematopoiesis in AN as GH/IGF-I modulate blood cell proliferation and GH therapy exerts beneficial effects on hematocrit values in GH deficient patients. Aim of the present study is to evaluate the link between GH/IGF-I status and haematologic p...

ACTH is the product of proteolytic processing of its precursor, proopiomelanocortin (POMC) and, in turn, is subject to proteolytic degradation. Regulation of proteolysis is crucial to several intracellular processes, including protein activation and inactivation, and thus contributes to active peptide concentrations. The proteosome 26S/ubiquitin system (UPS) is the main, non-lisosomial intracellular proteolytic pathway and alterations to this system have been observed in both ...

Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) is known to be produced and secreted by normal rat corticotropes and to contribute in a paracrine manner to POMC synthesis and ACTH secretion in these cells. The regulation of intrapituitary CRH however still has to be clarified.Aim: This study was to establish whether CRH gene expression can be measured in rat pituitaries in vitro and whether CRH modulates its own gene expression within the pitu...

Pomc synthesis and ACTH secretion by the anterior pituitary are controlled by two major, opposing players namely CRH and glucocorticoids. Most studies were performed on the AtT-20 mouse corticotroph tumor cell line or Pomc-transfected cells.Aim: Aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of CRH and DEX on Pomc expression and ACTH secretion in normal rat corticotropes in vitro.Methods: Rat anteri...

Introduction: Metachronic metastasis of renal carcinoma to the thyroid gland, a rare entity occurring sometimes many years after nephrectomy, have been already reported by literature. Thyroidal synchronous metastasis, instead, are more uncommon. We herein report a patient with thyroidal metastasis and intrajugular thrombo embolic involvement as initial presentation of a misunderstood renal carcinoma.Case Report: A 83-years-old woman, with silent medical ...

In a small but not negligible proportion of thalassemic patients, a true growth hormone deficiency (GHD), not secondary to pubertal delay, can be documented. Among the features of adult GHD syndrome, osteoporosis leads to a 2.5-fold increase in fracture risk. Thalassemia is characterized by a peculiar bone disease leading to osteopenia. The effectiveness of GH treatment in GHD adult thalassemic patients has not been explored yet. We report here the case of such a patient, disp...

Retinoic acid, a derivative of vitamin A, has recently yielded promising results in the treatment of Cushing’s disease (Pecori Giraldi et al. JCEM 2012). Its main site of action appears to be the tumoural corticotrope as retinoic acid inhibits POMC transcription and corticotrope proliferation (Paez-Pereda et al. JCI 2001). Studies on tumoural adrenal cell lines have revealed an additional inhibitory effect on cell proliferation and stimulated co...

An increased prevalence of acromegaly and pituitary tumors has recently been observed in high industrial density areas (Cannavò et al. J Endocrinol 2010) or after dioxin exposure (Pesatori et al. Eur J Endocrinol 2008). These data as well as vitro studies on endocrine disruptors (EDs) suggest that environmental pollutants may affect hormonal secretion and pituitary cell proliferation (Blake et al. Proc Soc Exp Biol...

Priming with sex steroids prior to stimulation tests for the diagnosis of GH deficiency (GHD) in peripubertal years remains controversial, though some evidence suggests its utility in improving the specificity of GH testing for the distinction between idiopathic GHD (IGHD) and constitutional delay of growth and puberty (CDGP). However, few data are available on the final height (FH) of untreated CDGP patients. In order to better understand the usefulness of priming, we analyze...

DNA methylation has recently been shown to play a role in postnatal as well as developmental gene regulation. Transfer and removal of methyl groups from CpG islands in the promoter region of specific genes has been associated with gene silencing or activation, respectively. POMC is known to present several methylation sites and demethylation of these sites has been shown to be linked to POMC expression by neuroendocrine tumors outside the pituitary.<p class="...