Endocrine Abstracts

The pituitary progenitors are responsible for generating a fully functional endocrine organ during embryonic development. They also preserve potency, to maintain the homoeostasis in the adult pituitary, being able to respond to endocrine challenges, such as pregnancy or obesity. But the main players of this complex process remain elusive. Eph-Ephrins have been implicated in an increasing number of physiological functions such as axon-guidance, eye field segregation from neural...

Introduction: Adrenal insufficiency is a life-threatening disease. Conventional treatment requires multiple daily doses of immediate-release hydrocortisone or cortisone acetate causing non-physiological peaks and nadir of cortisol and it has been also associated with premature mortality, high frequency of infections, reduced quality of life, altered metabolic profile and reduced bone mineral density. A modified-release hydrocortisone (Plenadren®, Shire) by combining a rap...

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a very common complication of cirrhosis (prevalence: 20–60%), primary due to increased hepatic insulin-resistance (IR). After liver transplantation (LT), DM recovers in 67% of cases, while 33% of patients remain diabetic because of a concomitant decreased beta cell function. The roles played by pre-transplant factors determining changes in glucose tolerance after LT are imperfectly known.Aim of the study: To h...

Poorly differentiated thyroid cancers are associated with variable types of p53 function derangements and bad prognosis due to the lack of effective treatments. SP600125 is a widely used JNK-inhibitor which recently showed anticancer properties in a p53 related way. Here, we tested the effect of SP600125 on four different thyroid cancer cell lines derived from PDTCs and ATCs with different p53 status.We analyzed the effects on cellular replication and ap...

The sex hormone 17β-estradiol (E2) exerts its pleiotropic effects through the binding to the ligand-activated transcription factor estrogen receptor alpha (ERa). The E2:ERa complex regulates several physiological processes including cell survival and proliferation through transcriptional (i.e., estrogen responsive element (ERE)-based gene transcription) and non-transcriptional membrane-initiated effects (i.e., activation of signalling cascades).Many...

Adipocyte fatty acid binding protein (FABP4) is emerging as a novel risk marker for metabolic syndrome and atherosclerosis. In this context we recently showed that FABP4 released by human adipocytes suppresses cardiomyocyte contraction, thus suggesting a pathogenic role for FABP4 in the cardiac dysfunction in obesity. Since a new FABP4 inhibitor which competitively inhibits the binding of endogenous fatty acids to FABP4 was effective in the treatment of atherosclerosis and dia...

IntroductionNowadays thrombopoietin receptor agonists (TPO-RAs) represent a promising approach for the patients with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). Usage of two licensed TPO-RAs, romiplostim and eltrombopag, provide efficient support of ITP patients´ platelet count and, as a consequence, better control of disease. Both agents have an acceptable toxicity profile, but there are several another disadvantages in terms of usage of these drugs such as cos...

Background: Deciding whether patients with a cytologically indeterminate thyroid nodule should be referred for surgery or for active surveillance is an important challenge for clinicians. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of a novel dual-component molecular assay as an ancillary molecular method for resolving indeterminate thyroid nodule cytology.Methods: We selected 156 thyroid nodules from those that had undergone both FNA cytology ...

Introduction: Hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) is a clinical condition characterized by nonimmune hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia and progressive kidney failure mediated by E.Coli Shiga-like toxin. In rare cases the inflammatory process may lead to beta-cell necrosis and, hence, overt diabetes mellitus. Post-HUS DM is characterized by severe insulin depletion and very high insulin sensitivity, making its therapeutic management particularly challenging....

Objectives: Vandetanib (V) is an important drug in the metastatic medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) treatment. The objective of this study was to evaluate the presence of predictors of V response, in short and long period, in locally advanced or metastatic MTC patients (pts).Methods: Seventy-nine locally advanced or metastatic MTC pts with progressive or symptomatic disease, referred to our Center between 2007 and 2018 and already treated surgically and wit...