Endocrine Abstracts

Steroids are central regulators of human physiology and disease. Steroid synthesis does not only taking place in adrenal and gonads but in all cells of the body that are equipped with steroidogenic enzymes, which allows targeted tissue-specific steroid activation and inactivation. We have developed steroid metabolomics as an innovative approach to the understanding of steroid biology by combining mass spectrometry-based steroid measurement with large scale data analysis with machine learning based computational methods. Over recent years, steroid metabolomics has emerged as a powerful tool for the dissection of disease mechanisms and the development of personalized diagnostic and therapeutic strategies in patients with adrenal and gonadal disorders. The lecture will introduce the principles of steroid metabolomics and provide two recent examples of its utility, both in the context of adrenal disease: firstly, as a biomarker tool for identification and monitoring of malignancy in adrenal incidentalomas, and secondly, for the elucidation of novel disease mechanisms in primary aldosteronism.