Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Tumour microenvironment (TME) is determined by non-tumoral cells, including immune, stromal or endothelial cells, and influences tumorigenesis, proliferation, invasiveness and angiogenesis. Little is known about TME in pituitary adenomas (PAs). We aimed to characterise the TME of PAs and its role in their aggressiveness, focusing on PA-infiltrating immune cells and cytokine network.Methods: Cytokine secretome from 24 human PAs (16NFPAs, 8GH...

Background and aim: Aryl hydrocarbon receptor-interacting protein (AIP) is evolutionary conserved and widely distributed throughout organism. Broad interest for AIP comes from involvement of loss-of-function AIP mutations in pituitary adenoma pathogenesis. The role of AIP in normal pituitary function is largely unknown. AIP is co-localized with GH in somatotroph secretory vesicles. Serum AIP protein was proteomically identified. We aimed at investigating whether AIP and GH are...

40-year-old female patient presented with acromegaly in 2008 (GH 61 (g/L, IGF-1 774 ng/ml PRL 1500 mU/L). Macro-adenoma invading the right cavernous sinus was found on MRI and she underwent two pituitary surgeries revealing sparsely granulated GH adenoma with scattered PRL cells, low Ki 67 and negative p53 immuno-staining. Her second cousin was treated for macro prolactinoma. Both patients tested negative for germline mutations in the AIP and menin genes. Treatment with somato...

Case history: A 63-year-old female presented with bi-temporal hemianopia. Pituitary MRI demonstrated a macroadenoma with suprasellar extension. Her medical history included a glomus tumour of the right ear treated with external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) 25 years previously. She had no evidence of pituitary hormone abnormality and had normal urinary metanephrines levels. She underwent transsphenoidal surgery with total resection and full recovery of her visual fields. Immunohist...

Introduction: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare disease with a poor prognosis and limited therapeutic options. Mitotane is considered as a first-line therapy but only 30% of the patients showing an objective tumour response.Erlotinib and gefitinib (tyrosine kinase inhibitors – TKI) inhibit the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which is highly expressed and occasionally mutated in various cancers. EGFR expression was found to be a good ...

Approximately 25% of the reported cases of MTC are familial. Familial MTC can occur as part of MEN2-syndrome or as familial MTC alone (fMTC) defined as more than ten carriers in the kindred, or multiple carriers or affected members over the age of 50 with an adequate medical history excluding pheochromocytoma. The vast majority of MEN2 families (98%), as well as fMTC kindreds (88%) harbour a RET mutation. In MEN2A, mutations at codon-634 (exon-11) account for 85% of all mutati...

Introduction: Angiogenesis is regulated by different components of the tumour microenvironment (TME) including cytokines and immune cells. Although angiogenesis has been studied in pituitary adenomas (PAs), the role of individual TME components in PA angiogenesis remains largely unknown. We aimed to characterise the role of the TME components in determining the angiogenesis of PAs, focusing on PA-infiltrating immune cells and the PA-derived cytokine network.<p class="abste...

Pituitary neuroendocrine tumours (PitNETs) are heterogeneous and have limited biomarkers to predict their behaviour, thus making their prognostication difficult. Ki-67 is a protein expressed in active phases of the cell cycle and is one of the biomarkers utilized in routine assessment of PitNET tissue. Current European Society of Endocrinology recommendations advise that histopathological analysis of PitNETs should as a minimum include Ki-67 proliferation index and anterior pi...

While pituitary adenomas (PA) usually occur as a sporadic disease, an increasing number of patients are recognised with a family member also suffering from a PA. If no other syndromic features are present, these families are categorised as FIPA. In published studies, 20% of the FIPA families, 20% of sporadic childhood and 13% of sporadic young-onset (≤30 years) acromegaly patients carry a germline AIP mutation. As familial disease is more aggressive, family scre...

Despite the known health hazards of cigarette smoking, many smokers fail to quit smoking, mainly due to nicotine’s addictiveness, but also because of fear from gaining weight. However, the mechanism of weight gain after smoking cessation is not fully elucidated yet.Healthy long-term smokers (28±2 years, 10F/20M, 23.4±1.3 kg/m2) participating in a smoking cessation programme underwent 3-hour oral glucose tolerance tests (oGTT) an...