Endocrine Abstracts

The calcium receptor (CASR) serves as one of the main regulators of the calcium homeostasis. CASR is expressed in among other tissues parathyroid chief cells and kidney tubule cells. It has been hypothesized that CASR gene variations are responsible for low circulating calcium levels together with hypercalciuria and thereby increased risk of kidney stones. The CASR gene polymorphism A986S has been shown associated to elevated serum calcium levels in vivo<...

Germline mutations in the succinate-dehydrogenase subunits A, B, C, and D (SDHA/B/C/D) predispose to development of the phaeochromocytoma-paraganglioma (FPGL) syndromes. SDHC and SDHD are anchoring proteins located in the inner mitochondrial membrane. The SDH complex has two major roles in energy production it is part of the tricarboxic acid cycle catalysing the oxidative dehydrogenation of succinate coupled to the reduction of ubiquinone. It is also the complex II component o...

Objective: High dose growth hormone (rhGH) regimens (2 to 4 mg/day) have been shown to increase circulating insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I to supra-physiological levels in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients on combined antiretroviral therapy (CART). This setting may improve immunologic output. However, a high plasma IGF-I concentration has detrimental effects on glucose metabolism, which hampers the use of high dose rhGH regimens.Me...

In congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI), mutations have been found in 5 different genes, ABCC8, KCNJ11, GCK, GLUD1 and SCHAD. In approximately 50% of all cases, however, no genetic explanation can be found.A mature newborn girl presented macrosomic, birth weight 4378 g, and a blood glucose down to 1.3 mmol/l at day 1. Hyperinsulinism was documented. The child responded to diazoxide treatment, initially in combination with prednisolone, chlorothiazide and oct...

Studies in vitro have highlighted the potent anti-cancer effects of the active form of vitamin D, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25D3). However, the in vivo application of 1,25D3 and its synthetic analogs remains problematical due to persistent hypercalcaemic side-effects. Recent studies have shown that it may be possible to overcome this in an autocrine fashion via extra-renal synthesis of 1,25D3. In particular, analysis of prostate and co...

Introduction: Iodine is essential for thyroid funciton and severe deficiency adversely affects the developing brain. A raised and sufficient intake is particularly important during the pregnancy. Iodine sources include sea foods and sea salt, and it is available as a dietary supplement. The former was previously important to the Faroses diet but the intake of traditional Faroses foods is decreasing with at likely parallel influence on the iodine intake. Currently, there is no ...

Objective: Describe short- and long-term changes in BMD in adults exposed to varying intensities of systemic glucocorticoid (GC) treatment.MethodsSetting: Danish Public Health Service Hospital, catchment area 500,000 individuals.Data: BMD data from 2006-2021 and data on filled prescriptions.Analysis: All adult patients with at least two DXA e...

Background: Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (PanNETs) are an understudied cancer type characterised by frequent metastasis, clinical recurrence, and high mortality rate. PanNETs originate from pancreatic islets, primarily β cells, and comprise two molecular subtypes: poorly invasive, relatively benign islet tumour (IT) and highly aggressive metastasis-like primary (MLP) tumour. The MLP subtype arises from IT through a switch in cell fate involving the acquisition of neu...

Introduction: Evaluation of glucocorticoid production generally requires a dynamic test. Cut-off levels for baseline cortisol concentrations predicting the outcome of a Synacthen test have been proposed for different cortisol assays. With introduction of the new Roche Elecsys Cortisol II assay, P-cortisol concentrations are expected to decrease by 20%. We have investigated cut-off levels for baseline P-cortisol concentrations measured with the Roche Elecsys Cortisol II assay t...

Background: Vitamin D deficiency has been proposed to play a role in development and course of Graves’ disease (GD). Muscle weakness and fatigue are shared features of GD and vitamin D deficiency. We aimed to investigate whether vitamin D supplementation would improve restoration of muscle performance and thyroid-related quality of life (QoL) in GD.Methods: In a double-blinded clinical trial, hyperthyroid patients with a first time diagnosis of GD w...