Endocrine Abstracts

GH has contra-insulin actions and exogenous GH can reversibly reduce insulin sensitivity in patients treated with GH. It has been recently reported that the exon 3 – deleted (d3) isoform of the GH receptor (GHR) appears to be preventive for type 2 diabetes mellitus in adult subjects (GH&IGF Res 2007;17:392). Aim of this study was to investigate possible influences of the GHR-d3 polymorohism on glucose metabolism, lipid profile and BMI in children treated with GH for G...

Central Hypothyroidism (CeH) is a rare thyroid hormone production defect due to an insufficient stimulation of a normal thyroid gland. Candidate genes for isolated CeH include TSHβ (several cases reported) and TRHR (only one case reported so far). Here, we report the clinical and genetic studies in 2 males and 3 females affected with isolated CeH with normal/low TSH levels (0.05–0.95 mU/L) and low FT4 levels (3.6–4.6 pM). None of the patients was detected at neo...

GH acts at the target cell through the GH receptor (GHR), stimulating a cascade of events that leads to target gene transcription. Polymorphisms of the GHR (GHRPs) have been reported in the general population and have been described in exons 3, 6 and 10, although their prevalence is not well defined. It is conceivable that GHRPs might affect the growth response to exogenous GH in children with short stature of different origin. To evaluate the prevalence of the different GHRPs...

Isolated central hypothyroidism (ICH) is a rare disease whose pathogenesis is so far linked to germinal mutations of TSHβ (several cases) or TRH receptor (TRHR) genes (only two cases). Here, we report the studies performed to elucidate the pathogenesis of idiopathic ICH in five cases (two men, three women) with low/normal TSH levels and low freeT4 levels (3–8 pmol/l). One male, negative at neonatal TSH screening, showed signs of severe hypothyroidism at 44...

APECED is an autosomal – recessive syndrome defined by two of the following conditions: chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis (CMC), hypoparathyroidism (HP) or Addison disease (AD). Other autoimmune endocrine or non-endocrine conditions may be associated, like thyroiditis, celiac disease, alopecia and nail dystrophy. APECED is caused by mutations in the AIRE gene, mapping to 21q22.3. We report here 4 cases with atypical or incomplete presentation, that have been geneti...