Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: The impact of first-line somatostatin analogues (SSA) on glucose tolerance in acromegaly was investigated during a 10 year period.Patients: One hundred and twelve patients treated with depot SSA.Outcome measures: Primary outcome measures were fasting glucose levels. Data were analyzed according with baseline glucose tolerance and disease control.Results after 12 months SSA treatment: In the 63 pati...

Elevated insulin levels are correlated with colonic adenomas and carcinomas in the general population. Patients with acromegaly are considered at high risk to develop colonic lesions and have a high insulin levels. To evaluate the role of insulin levels on colonic polyps (hyperplastic, adenomatous, single or synchronous) or adenocarcinoma in acromegaly we designed this analytical, observational, open, prospective, study enrolling 189 patients (100 women, 89 men, age 20–82...

The most frequent cause of death in acromegaly is cardiomyopathy. To evaluate determinants of the acromegalic cardiomyopathy we performed an analytical, observational, open, prospective, controlled study in 205 patients with active acromegaly (108 women and 97 men) and 205 non-acromegalic subjects sex- and age-matched with the patients. We determined the prevalence of Left Ventricular (LV) hypertrophy (LVH), diastolic and systolic dysfunction, by echocardiography- measured LV ...

Introduction: Growth Hormone (GH) receptors are expressed on, and GH is secreted by, human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). However, the role of GH in immunity has remained elusive and studies have given conflicting results. Experimental data strongly implicates a role for pituitary GH in the immune response of rodents. The data from knockout mice suggests that GH acts not as an obligate immunoregulator but as an anabolic and stress-modulating hormone. Despite the c...

Introduction: Somatostatin analogues (SSA) represent the main therapeutic option in patients affected with functioning well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors (NET). However, after a variable time from the start of the therapy tachyphylaxys may cause lack of control of clinical syndrome and progression of the disease.Aim: The aim of this preliminary study was to evaluate efficacy in terms of reduction of circulating markers, control of the clinical syn...

Campania Region has been facing waste management crisis since 1980, characterized by urban, toxic and industrial waste illegal disposal, burying and incineration. Cadmium (Cd) is consistently shown to affect male reproductive function by multiple mechanisms, mostly elucidated in experimental models. The aim of the current single-center, observational, cross-sectional cohort study was to evaluate the prevalence of testis morphostructural alterations in a large cohort of men liv...

Introduction: Constitution of new blood vessels is crucial for cancer self-maintenance and progression. Neo-angiogenesis may be affected from hereditary traits, namely the presence of SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) of genes involved in its regulation. VEGF-A represents the main regulator of angiogenesis. Germline SNPs of the VEGF-A gene have been associated to outcome of several cancers, but no data exist about differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC).<p class="abstext"...

Cancer exosomes emerged as important mediators of cancer drug resistance. Drug exposure-mediated EveR in HCC cell lines can be reversed by VitD pre- and co-treatment. The current study aimed to investigate whether cancer exosomes from EveR HCC cell line are able to induce EveR in parental cells and whether VitD may activate reversal effect on exosome-mediated EveR.To this purpose, parental JHH-6 and EveR JHH-6 cell line were used. The uptakeof exosomes, ...

Introduction: Adrenal insufficiency requires life-long glucocorticoid replacement. Conventional therapies fail to mimic endogenous cortisol circadian rhythm. Clock genes are essential components of the molecular machinery controlling organ’s circadian function and are influenced by glucocorticoids. However, clock genes expression has never been investigated in patients with adrenal insufficiency (AI).Aim: To evaluate the effect of the timing of gluc...

HCC is a difficult-to-treat-cancer with poor prognosis. EVOLVE-1 trial demonstrated that EVE did not improve overall survival in molecularly and clinically unselected patients with advanced HCC resistant to sorafenib. In selected patients, the well-established antitumor effect of EVE could make this a potential adjuvant therapy. Unfortunately, EVE acquired resistance due to the tumor adaptation to chronic drug use is a current challenge. VitD was deemed as potential regimen to...