Endocrine Abstracts

The active form of vitamin D, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25D3), is a potent regulator of the immune system and activation of the vitamin D receptor alters expression and secretion of cytokines, chemokines and cell adhesion factors. Initial studies suggested that 1,25D3 synthesis and metabolism are increased in renal epithelial cells by TNFα and IL-1β. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine whether vitamin D alters the expression of immune activated molecule...

Corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH), and the urocortins (UCN) play key roles in mammalian pathophysiology. Their actions are mediated through two types of G-protein coupled CRH receptors, (R1 and R2) which exhibit distinct pharmacological characteristics and determine specificity of CRH and UCN actions. Several CRH-R1 mRNA splice variants have been identified in native tissues, encoding receptor isoforms with various aminoacid inserts or deletions, termed R1β, R1c, R1d ...

The family of urocortins (UCNs) exert important pathophysiological actions in the control of peripheral homeostatic mechanisms, through activation of the type 2-corticotropin releasing hormone receptor (CRH-R2). This G-protein coupled receptor preferentially binds urocortins (UCN, UCNII and UCNIII) than CRH. In most tissues, CRH-R2 activation leads to increased cAMP production. In this study we used HEK293 cells stably overexpressing recombinant CRH-R2β receptors to inves...

Introduction: Recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) dysfunction is a major complication in thyroid surgery, caused commonly by thermal damage, transection or misplaced ligations. It can also be caused by RLN distension by thyroid tumors or thyroid goiter. Permanent paralysis decreases significantly quality of life and should be treated. Some surgical techniques can provide improvement in phonation, even complete recovery. The aim of this study was to analyze usefulness of RLN libera...

Introduction: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) is the most common autoimmune thyroid disease and the most common cause of euthyroid goitre and acquired hypothyroidism in childhood.Objective: To describe the clinical manifestations, course and outcome of HT in children and adolescents.Method: The study included 43 patients with HT, aged 3–16 years, mean age 12.5 years, 36-girls, seven boys; 15 (35%) prepubertal, 28 (65%) puber...

Introduction: Growth response in GH deficient children during GH replacement therapy rarely fulfil our projections and patient’s expectations. We here report three cases with outstanding growth response.Case reports: First patient was diagnosed as gluten enteropathy in early childhood, but the diet didn’t improve his growth. At age of 7 years the diagnosis of isolated GH deficiency (GHD) was established and GH substitution therapy introduced. N...

In addition to well established role in coordinating mammalian adaptive responses to stressful stimuli, the family of “stress” peptides that includes corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) and urocortins (Ucns) are emerging as important regulators of the homeostatic mechanisms regulating energy balance and metabolism. CRH acting through specific G-protein coupled receptors, CRH-R1 and R2 can target multiple peripheral tissues such as skeletal muscle and adipose tissue...

Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and its related peptides, the urocortins (UCNs) mediate their effects by binding to two types of GPCRs, CRH-R1 and CRH-R2. In most target tissues, the adenylyl cyclase/cAMP/PKA and the mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) are the two main pathways mediating the biological effects of CRH-Rs. For most multi-signal G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), there is considerable level of ‘cross-talk’ between different signalling cascad...

Introduction: The incidence of occult lymph node metastases (LNM) in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) reaches 80%, still their surgical management in clinically node negative (cN0) patients remains controversial and ranges from ‘wait and see’ principle to prophylactic dissections of both central and lateral neck compartments. This encouraged some authors to apply the concept of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNb) in PTC. Our aim to investigate if SLNb using methylene ...

Introduction: Surgical management of clinically N0 (cN0) patients with thyroid carcinomas remains debatable due to various reported frequencies of lymph node (LN) metastases. The aim of this paper was to present usefulness of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) of jugulo-carotid regions after methylene blue dye (MBD) mapping in intraoperative selection of cN0 patients with papillary and medullary thyroid carcinomas for one-time lateral neck dissection (LND).<p class="abstext...