Endocrine Abstracts

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a T-cell mediated autoimmune disease in which the insulin-producing pancreatic beta-cells in the islets of Langerhans are destroyed. While the symptoms of the disease have become treatable to a certain extent, even intensive state-of-the-art insulin therapy cannot prevent the development of severe complications in the majority of patients. There is, therefore, a huge and unmet clinical demand for disease intervention, but a cure for T1D does not yet ex...

Polycystic ovary syndrome is the most common cause of hirsutism & menstrual irregularity in adolescent girls. It is often accompanied by obesity and insulin resistance and associated to lifelong co-morbidities including reduced fertility, type 2 diabetes, premenopausal cancer, depression, and pregnancy and offspring complications. There is no approved therapy for PCOS in adolescent girls. Oral contraceptives (OCs) are prescribed off-label to approximately 98% of young PCOS...

Humans have 10 insulin-like genes, the most closely related being insulin and the adjacent gene, insulin-like growth factor II (IGF-II). Despite insulin being at the vanguard of endocrinology, the role of IGF-II has remained an enigma. IGF-II was first discovered with the observation that after all detectable insulin was depleted from serum with very specific antibodies, the vast majority of insulin activity remained. While insulin is a very simple gene, the IGF-II gene is far...

Acute lung injury (ALI) is characterized by endothelial and epithelial damage, followed by inflammatory. Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is a gut-produced hormone with insulinotropic effects. GLP-1 receptor is expressed in the lung, and there implicated in the synthesis of surfactant proteins. We have previously shown that liraglutide (LIR), a GLP-1 receptor agonist, restores surfactant protein-B (SPB) levels, a limiting factor for survival, and also angiotensin converting enz...

Background: The effect of weight loss on hypothalamic function is complex and not fully understood. There is interplay between neuropeptides (leptin, ghrelin) and hypothalamus with the postulated aim of energy conservation and prevention of pregnancy during unfavourable conditions. We present a memorable case.Case: A 35-yr-old lady presented with secondary amenorrhoea of 17 years duration. She attained menarche at age 13. At age 16 her periods became sca...

Objective: Althoughmost Papillary Thyroid Cancer (PTC) patients with biochemical incomplete response (BIR) to primary therapy have a good clinical outcome, some will develop disease progression. We aim to study baseline characteristics and long-term outcomes of PTC patients with BIR.Methods: Of 1049 PTC patients treated at 2 tertiary medical centers, 795 (75.8%) had excellent, 91 (8.7%) biochemical incomplete, 139 (13.2%) structural incomplete and 24 (2....

The classical model of GPCR activation entails the binding of a single ligand to a single receptor molecule, followed by transmembrane signal transduction to the appropriate G protein(s). The possibility of GPCRs functioning as dimers or oligomers still remains controversial, and is largely based on in vitro studies on transfected cells. The glycoprotein hormone receptors, including that of LH (LHCGR), differ from most GPCRs by their large extracellular ligand-binding...

Testosterone is the main male hormone controlling sexual and reproductive functions. Testosterone deficiency is associated with male hypogonadism, a syndromic condition that encompasses the well-recognised sexual and reproductive failure. Male hypogonadism has been, in fact, recently associated to an increased cardiovascular and metabolic risk (metabolic syndrome), most probably because testosterone deficiency is a stigmata of visceral adiposity. A stepwise reduction in testos...

Context: GH and insulin-like growth factor (IGF1) play important roles in breast cancer (BC) development. IGF1 has been shown to importantly influence estrogen effects on BC, suggesting that estrogen receptors (ER) may mediate also GH effects. We previously demonstrated that GH and IGF1 protect the ER positive BC-derived MCF7 cell line towards the cytotoxic effects of doxorubicin (D), independently of IGF1.Aim of the study: Evaluate whether this holds tr...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is often diagnosed at late stage or metastatic condition. Surgical resection is considered treatment of choice and other treatment options include chemoembolization, radiofrequency ablation and photodynamic therapy. We evaluated the expression levels of the 5 somatostatin receptors (SSTRs) in 23 biopsies of HCC patients and also mTOR, p70S6K and 4eBP1 in HuH-7 and HepG2 and investigated the in vitro effect of somatostatin analogs (SA) and ...