Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Heterozygote loss-of-function mutations in AIP (Aryl hydrocarbon receptor interacting protein) predispose to young-onset pituitary adenomas. Homozygote murine knockout model of AIP leads to lethality. While the majority of the 75 published AIP mutations result in truncated or missing proteins, missense mutations are more difficult to characterise and to establish their pathogenic role. We have identified the orthologue of AIP, CG1847, in Drosophila melanogaster. ...

Somatostatin analogs (SSA) are a first-line treatment for pituitary adenomas (PA). Indeed, multi-receptor targeting SSA such as octreotide and pasireotide are being successfully used to control hormone secretion and/or tumor growth. Unfortunately, many PA escape from SSA-therapy, which could be related to somatostatin receptor (sst) presence, abundance, availability and/or signaling. In order to better define the molecular/cellular features associated to octreotide and pasireo...

Pituitary antibodies have been measured mainly to identify patients whose disease is caused or sustained by pituitary-specific autoimmunity. Although reported in over 100 publications, this antibody test has variable results and limited clinical utility. Our goals were to: identify major sources of variability; test them experimentally for establishing an optimized immunofluorescence protocol; assess prevalence and significance of pituitary antibodies in patients with pituitar...

Several studies support the existence of multipotent stem/progenitor cells in the adult pituitary, whereas the presence of stem cell in pituitary tumors and their role in pituitary tumorigenesis are still on debate. Aim of this study was to identify and characterize stem-like cells in non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFPAs). To this purpose primary cell cultures from 25 NFPAs were grown in culture conditions that favored stem cell growth (EGF, bFGF and B27 containing medium...

Introduction: Hypercortisolism in Cushing’s syndrome (CS) determines increased mortality and morbidity. Hypercortisolism is also present in chronic depressive disorders and stress, where telomere length (TL) is shorter than in controls. We hypothesized that telomere shortening may occur and contribute to premature morbidity in CS.Aim: Investigate TL in CS compared to matched controls, and longitudinally in a subset of CS patients evaluated both with...