Endocrine Abstracts

The proto-oncogene Gsalpha has been implicated in a significant minority of somatotrophinomas, but the search for candidate oncogenes in the remaining somatotrophinomas, and in the great majority of other types of benign pituitary adenomas, has so far been unsuccessful. Microarray-based comparative genomic hybridisation (microarray-CGH) is a novel DNA microarray technique that has been shown to identify gain or loss at the gene level, and has been proposed as a tool to screen ...

Sodium transport across the human ocular non-pigmented ciliary epithelium (NPE) is fundamental to the production aqueous humour and maintenance of intraocular pressure. In sodium transporting tissues, serum and glucocorticoid regulated kinase isoform 1 (SGK1) has been identified as an early corticosteroid target gene in the activation of pre-existing epithelial sodium channels (ENaC). We previously demonstrated the presence of both the mineralocorticoid (MR) and glucocorticoid...

Introduction: DOTANOC is a largely used somatostatin analogue in NETs investigations. In NODAGANOC, the DOTA is replaced by NODAGA, a chelator derivative from NOTA which is the ‘gold standard’ for Ga3+ and Cu2+ chelation because it forms more stable complexes than DOTA.[1] The aim of our study is to evaluate the affinity of NODAGANOC for somatostatin receptors (sst) and to develop a 68Ga and 64Cu labelled NODAGANOC for a fu...

The imaging of neuroendocrine tumours (NET) is multimodal and is often initiated by cross sectional imaging, usually CT. Imaging with CT demonstrates metastatic disease more frequently than locating the primary lesion. Subsequent imaging relies on somatostatin receptor (SSR) scintigraphy, usually with the use of indium octreotide. SSR scintigraphy is commonly supplemented with SPECT CT to help localise the sites of metastatic deposits more accurately by delineating the associa...

Introduction: 7-hydroxyl DHEA derivatives are labelled as natural anti-glucocorticoid and neuroprotective substances. Their impact on the production of cytokines, their activation of apoptosis, influence on the migration of macrophages to peripheral tissue, their possible effect on angiogenesis, effect on inflammatory mediators (arachidonic acid metabolites) and their role in the mechanism of oxidative stress have been described.Methods: In our study we ...

A number of new treatments are being developed for the treatment of bone diseases, particularly osteoporosis. We need tools to help identify how these drugs work and which bone compartment they affect. Bone turnover markers are very useful in identifying response to treatment in these allow identification of an early change and information about mechanism. New biochemical tests have become available that allow study of the key regulatory pathways in bone – these include o...

It is suggested that phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase pathway is involved in regulation of estrogen effects in the uterus. Therefore, effects of posphatidylinositol 3-kinase blocker, wortmannin, on proliferative and morphogenetic reactions in the uterus under long-term estrogen treatment were examined. Ovariectomized mice were treated with estradiol dipropionate (4 μg per 100 g; s.c.; once a week) or vehicle and wortmannin (0.1 mg per 100 g; s.c.; once a day) or vehicle for ...

Objectives: The melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) belonging to the large superfamily of G-protein coupled receptors plays a crucial role in hypothalamic weight regulation. In approximately 3–5% of investigated obese patients inactivating MC4R mutations are the underlying molecular cause for early onset obesity. Functional characterisation revealed for specific partial loss of function MC4R mutations that restoration of receptor function is possible by usage of highly potent ...

BackgroundThe role of endocrine testing in idiopathic gynecomastia is controversial. Previous studies suggested that such testing is rarely productive and best done selectively.ObjectivesA retrospective study was performed to evaluate the usefulness of a routine endocrine testing in patients presenting with gynecomastia.MethodsThe medical records of 71 patients wi...

Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is the most common endocrine malignancy. The survival rate is excellent, however in some cases it transforms to dedifferentiated invasive tumor. Tumor cell invasion and metastasis are major causes of cancer mortality. It is a challenging task to identify critical genes controlling metastatic potential and disease recurrance. We sought molecular prognostic markers that could improve diagnostics and planning therapy.Comparati...