Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Several cross-sectional studies evidence the association between hypovitaminosis D, obesity, insulin resistance (IR), and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) cohorts, although the role of obesity per se is still debatable. Increased leptin-to-adiponectin ratio (L/A) and low-grade chronic inflammation markers, both due to accumulation of dysfunctional adipocytes, have been recently reported in PCOS. Aim of our study was to investigate the relative roles of obe...

Cabergoline (CAB) was demonstrated to be effective in normalizing cortisol secretion in a subset of patients with Cushing’s disease (CD). The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of chronic treatment with CAB on clinical, metabolic and hormonal parameters in CD patients. Twenty-six patients with CD (11 males, 15 females, 12–72 years) entered the study. Patients were divided into two groups, responders and non responders, according to the achievement or not of ...

Somatostatin (SSTRs) and dopamine (DRs) receptors are expressed in adrenal tumors. It has been demonstrated in pituitary and neuroendocrine tumors that somatostatin-dopamine chimeric molecules, namely dopastatins, which bind both somatostatin (SST2 and/or SST5) and dopamine (D2) receptors, exert a more potent action compared with the single receptor agonists in experimental settings. The aims of this study were to evaluate the expression of DRs and SSTRs, and the effects of do...

Background: There is a growing body of evidence of an alteration in GH/IGF1 axis in neurological diseases. IGF1 and IGFBP3 serum levels are reported to be similar in controls, relapsing remitting (RR) MS and primary progressive (PP) MS patients, but in RR patients on IFN therapy they were found to be higher then in controls. IGFBP3 was found to correlate to progression index in PPMS.Objective: To compare IGF1 and IGFBP3 serum levels in RR MS and secondar...

The dopamine agonist cabergoline has been found to be effective in inducing normalization of cortisol secretion in 25–50% of patients with Cushing’s disease after long-term treatment. Moreover, tumor shrinkage have been documented in selected patients with pituitary corticotroph tumors. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of cabergoline withdrawal in patients with a stable normalization of cortisol secretion and stable or absent visualization of p...

Subclinical Cushing’s syndrome (SCS) is a mild autonomous cortisol hypersecretion without specific clinical syndrome of glucocorticoid excess. The aim of this study was to compare cardiac structure and function in patients with adrenal incidentaloma. Twenty patients and 20 sex- and age-matched healthy controls entered the study: among patients, 11 had SCS and the remaining nine had normal cortisol secretion All patients and controls were submitted to Doppler echocardiogra...

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare and aggressive tumour with a poor prognosis, characterized by radio/chemotherapy resistance. The lack of an effective medical treatment is due to the poor knowledge of the mechanisms underlying malignant tumour transformation and aggressiveness. In vitro studies on the ACC H295R cell model have demonstrated that RGZ, an antidiabetic drug belonging to the thiazolidinedione ligands of PPARgamma, blocks cell proliferation/migration ...

The first-line treatment of Cushing’s disease is surgery, although it is effective in inducing a long-term remission in around 50% of patients with Cushing’s disease (CD). Nowadays, no pituitary tumor-directed medical treatment is available with the exception of cabergoline, which has been recently demonstrated to control cortisol secretion without major side effects in around 40% of patients with Cushing’s disease. Cabergoline has been recently demonstrated to ...

Background: Severe GH deficiency (GHD) is associated with, increased cardiovascular (CV) risk and intima-media thickness (IMT) at major arteries.Objective: To investigate the long-term (5-years) effects of GH replacement on insulin resistance (IR) syndrome (IRS) (at least two of: triglycerides levels ≥1.7 mmol/l, HDL-cholesterol levels ≤1.0 mmol/l, blood pressure above 130/85 mmHg, fasting glucose 6.1–7 or 2 h after glucose 7.7–11.1...

The prevalence of the metabolic syndrome is increasing worldwide. The untreated metabolic syndrome places individuals at risk both for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Adult GH deficiency syndrome present some of the 5 features of the metabolic syndrome, abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, low HDL-cholesterol, elevations of blood glucose, hypertension and a 2-fold higher risk of death for CD compared with controls. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence o...