Endocrine Abstracts

Pituitary tumors, are mostly benign, but may cause significant morbidity in affected patients, including visual and neurologic manifestations from mass-effect, or endocrine syndromes caused by hormone hypersecretion. Dopamine (DA) receptor DRD2 and somatostatin (SS) receptors (SSTRs) represent the main targets of pharmacological treatment of pituitary tumors since they mediate inhibitory effects on both hormone secretion and cell proliferation, and their expression is retained...

According to the WHO classification and to clinical practice most pituitary tumors are benign, although invasion and aggressive behavior, as well as resistance to somatostatin/dopamine (SS/DA) analogs, occur in 25 – 50% of cases. In particular, genetic forms of acrogigantism (X-linked acrogigantism - X-LAG) are characterized by a very precocious and resistant phenotype associated with microduplications in the Xq26.3 region involving the GPR101 gene. The GPR101 gene encod...

The two main subtypes of pseudohypoparathyroidism (PHP), PHP-Ia and -Ib, are caused by mutations in GNAS exons 1–13 and methylation defects in the imprinted GNAS cluster, respectively. PHP-Ia patients show Albright hereditary osteodystrophy (AHO), together with end-organ resistance to the action of different hormones that activate the Gs-coupled pathways, primarily PTH, TSH, gonadotropins, and GHRH. In PHP-Ib patients AHO is classically absent, Gsα acti...

Pseudohypoparathyroidism type 1 A (PHP-1A) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by hypocalcemia, hyperphosfatemia, multi hormones resistance (PTH, TSH, Calcitonin, GH) associated with Albright hereditary osteodystrophy (AHO) features. The disease is caused by GNAS haploinsufficiency due to inherited inactivating mutation of GNAS-gene that codes for the stimulatory alfa subunit of G protein. A positive genotype-phenotype correlation was recently hypothesized. The purpose of...

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) are a class of molecules used in treating depression, anxiety, and mood disorders. Paroxetine (PRT) is one of the mostly prescribed antidepressant which has attracted great attention regarding its side effects in recent years. This study was planned to assess the adverse effects of paroxitine on the biochemical parameters and reproductive system. Fourteen male wistar rats were randomly allocated into two groups (7...

In this study, we attempted to assess the toxicity of Methyl Thiophanate (MT) on the biochemical and reproductive parameters in male Wistar rats as well as the possible protective role of Zingiber officinale (Ginger, Ging) extract against MT-induced toxicity. Hence, forty adult Wistar rats were allocated into four groups of 10 rats for each; the first group served as control, groups 2, 3 and 4 were treated orally (5/week) for 8 weeks by MT (150 mg/kg bw), Ging (100 mg...

Methomyl (MET) is a carbamate insecticide used worldwide to protect a wide variety of crops from insect nuisances. Besides this beneficial role, it is classified as highly toxic compound for humans and animals by the EPA. Pistacia Lentiscus (PL) is a shrub that grows in the Mediterranean region; plant parts and oil have a long history in folk medicine in healing several diseases by their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antifungal, antiatherogenic and anticancer ...

Neurosurgery is the treatment of choice of non-functioning pituitary tumors (NFPAs), but its success is strongly affected by local invasion. Medical therapy is still under debate, although the use of cabergoline results in tumor shrinkage in a subset of patients. We recently demonstrated that dopamine receptor DRD2 agonist BIM53097 exerts cytostatic and cytotoxic effects in cultured cells from NFPAs, but no data are present in literature about DRD2 mediated effects on pituitar...

Background: Patients with Cushing’s Syndrome (CS) have a high risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) related to a hypercoagulable state. Previous studies showed increased levels of procoagulant factors but also an elevation of some of the anticoagulants factors and fibrinolytic enzymes. Once patients achieve disease remission, there is a significant decrease of some procoagulant factors but if these alterations are completely reversible is still unclear. Compared to tradit...

Introduction: Endogenous hypercortisolism is associated with cardio-metabolic complications and promotes the deposition of lipids in different tissues, particularly in the liver. However, the prevalence of hepatic steatosis in patients with Cushing’s syndrome (CS) has been little investigated so far and only one previous study reported a prevalence of 20% using computed tomography. The aim of the study is to evaluate the prevalence of hepatic steatosis and the organ-speci...