Maria Alevizaki, Ilpo Huhtaniemi
The pituitary glycoprotein hormones thyrotrophin (thyroid-stimulating hormone, TSH), lutrophin (luteinising hormone, LH) and follitrophin (follicle-stimulating hormone, FSH), as well as the placental choriongonadotrophin (human chorionic gonadotrophin, hCG) are composed of a common α-subunit and a specific β-subunit, coupled by noncovalent interactions …
Gemma Sesmilo, Irene Halperin, Manuel Puig-Domingo
Brain injury (BI), both head trauma (TBI) and subarachnoid hemorrage (SAH), has consistently been recognized as an important cause of pituitary dysfunction.1 Different studies have estimated that 20-50% of patients who have suffered BI will develop some degree of hypopituitarism.1-9 The high incidence of BI ranks it as potentially the most important cause of hypothalamic-pituitary dysfunction…
Anastasia Sfikakis, Pothitos M. Pitychoutis, Katerina Antoniou, Nikolaos Bikas, Zeta Papadopoulou-Daifoti
OBJECTIVE: We sought to investigate the impact of emotional and surgical stress applied in two hormonally different estrous-cycle phases as well as the hypothalamic dopaminergic involvement on the rapid compensatory adrenal growth (CAG) and the individual adrenal growth (IAG) in rats. DESIGN: After surgery for left and sham adrenalectomy (Adx) carried out on either diestrus-2 (DE-2) or proestrus (PE) …
Chrisoula D. Scopa
Thyroid cancer accounts for approximately 1% of total cancer cases in developed countries. It affects all age groups, although it is rare in children. Thyroid tumors are more frequent in women than in men. Despite their relative rarity they exhibit a wide range of morphological patterns and biological behavior which may explain the great interest in these neoplasms of both pathologists and clinicians…
Victoria Salem, Thomas G. Hopkins, Heba El-Gayar, Sagen Zac-Varghese, Anthony P. Goldstone, Jeannie F. Todd, Waljit Dhillo, Benjamin C.T. Field, Niamh Martin, Emma Hatfield, Mandy Donaldson, Fausto Palazzo, Karim Meeran, James Jackson, Tricia Tan
CONTEXT: Adrenal vein sampling (AVS) is recommended in all patients with hyperaldosteronism to whom surgery would be offered if the results indicated unilateral hypersecretion. OBJECTIVE: To assess the performance of AVS against radiological findings …
Athanasios D. Anastasilakis, Stergios A. Polyzos, Polyzois Makras, Lampros Kampas, Rosalia-Maria Valeri, Kyriakoulis Dimitrios, Thomas Zarampoukas, Maria Alevizaki
Papillary thyroid microcarcinomas (PTMCs) have an excellent prognosis, although a few may metastasize to cervical lymph nodes. However, an infiltrated palpable neck node without evidence of thyroid disease at presentation is uncommon. We report a patient with PTMC presenting …
Mauro Doga, Stefania Bonadonna, Andrea Giustina
Chronic exposure to excessive concentrations of endogenous cortisol or to pharmacologic doses of glucocorticoids (GCs) causes multiple deleterious effects on body structure and function. Osteopenia, osteoporosis and bone fractures are well recognized consequences of excessive GC exposure, with fractures being a major cause of morbidity and mortality, particularly in the elderly. In particular, GCs have profound effects on bone metabolism, acting at many sites…
George Vlotides, Ayse Tanyeri, Matilde Spampatti, Kathrin Zitzmann, Michael Chourdakis, Gerald Spöttl, Julian Maurer, Svenja Nölting, Burkhard Göke, Christoph J. Auernhammer
Metformin is a widely used oral antidiabetic drug with good tolerability. Recent studies suggest that it also possesses adjuvant potent anticancer properties in a variety of tumors. Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) of the gastro-entero-pancreatic system (GEP) comprise a heterogeneous group of tumors with increasing incidence …
Ze’ev Hochberg, Alan R Templeton
Evolutionary pressures due to variation in climate play an important role in shaping phenotypic variation among and within species and have been shown to influence variation in phenotypes such as body shape and size among humans. Here we review the evidence for migration and change of living latitude in the evolution of skin color genes and the vitamin D receptor (VDR) ..
Neoklis A. Georgopoulos, Kostas B. Markou, Anastasia Theodoropoulou, George A. Vagenakis, Panagiotis Mylonas, Apostolos G. Vagenakis
The genetic potentials for growth can be fully expressed only under favourable environmental conditions. Excessive physical training may negatively affect growth, especially during puberty. Sports that require a strict control of energy input in the presence of a high energy output are of particular concern. In gymnastics, a different pattern in skeletal maturation was observed …
Spyridon N. Karras, Panagiotis Anagnostis, Andrea Petroczi, Cedric Annweiler, Declan P. Naughton, Dimitrios G. Goulis
Maternal hypovitaminosis D during pregnancy has been associated with a wide spectrum of adverse maternal and neonatal health outcomes, some manifesting stronger associations than others. Research in this field has entered the “era of systematic data evaluation” via the conducting of a series of meta-analyses in an attempt to synthesize …
Agathoklis Psyrogiannis, Venetsana Kyriazopoulou, Argiris Symeonidis, Michalis Leotsinidis, Apostolos G. Vagenakis
There are a few reports suggesting that subtle disturbances of iron metabolism are frequently found in patients with type 2 diabetes (DM2), but it is not known if these disturbances precede or accompany the diabetic state. We investigated the serum iron indices in 41 offspring of DM2 parents (group I) with normal glucose tolerance …
Melpomeni Peppa, Jaime Uribarri, Helen Vlassara
Aging and related diseases are accompanied by increased Oxidative Stress (OS) and accumulation of Advanced Glycation End products (AGEs). One important component of AGEs accumulation with aging appears to be the sustained exposure to dietary AGE (dAGEs), which contributes to overloading of anti-AGE receptors and depletion of anti-oxidant reserves …
Franziska M. Hanusch, Evelyn Fischer, Katharina Lang, Sven Diederich, Stephan Endres, Bruno Allolio, Felix Beuschlein, Martin Reincke, Marcus Quinkler, for the participants of the German Conn’s Registry
OBJECTIVE: In subjects at high risk for sleep apnea (SA), aldosterone concentrations correlate with severity of SA and primary aldosteronism (PA) is very often diagnosed. Patients with PA show a high prevalence of SA. Treatment of PA either by adrenalectomy (ADX) or mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) blockade is thought to abolish …
Salvatore Alesci, Ioannis Ilias, Emmanuil Souvatzoglou, Alan G. Harris, Philip W. Gold, Alejandro R. Ayala, George P. Chrousos
The standard intravenous short Synacthen® test (SSST) has long been accepted as one of the most reliable diagnostic tests of adrenocortical insufficiency. Intramuscular (i.m.) administration of ACTH obviates the need of venous cannulation and can be used as an alternative to the intravenous test …
Anthony C. Hackney, Ashley Kallman, Karen P. Hosick, Daniela A. Rubin, Claudio L. Battaglini
OBJECTIVE: To compare the thyroid hormonal responses to high-intensity interval exercise (IE) and steady-state endurance exercise (SEE) in highly trained males (n=15). DESIGN: The IE session consisted of repeated periods of 90-seconds treadmill running at 100-110% …
Evanthia Diamanti-Kandarakis, Dimitrios Tsilakis, Stefanos Lazarides, Helen Kandarakis, Angeliki Bergele
“Altius, citius, fortius”: higher, faster, stronger. These words from ancient times still today express the endeavour of athletes to beat records and gain victory. This endeavour has never been easy and becomes harder every day as the records climb higher. Many athletes are thus tempted to use artificial substances that enhance power, stamina and body structure…
Paloma Alonso-Magdalena, Ana Belιn Ropero, Sergi Soriano, Ivan Quesada, Angel Nadal
The aim of this review was to analyze the potential effects of environmental chemicals on homeostatic control related to glycemia and energy balance. Many of the environmental chemicals can mimic or interfere with the action of hormones and are generally referred to as “endocrine disruptors” …
Melpomeni Peppa, Helen Vlassara
Diabetes mellitus, especially type 2 diabetes, is increasing at an alarming rate and is considered as one of the main threats to human health in the 21st century, in both developed and developing nations.1
More than 150 million people currently have diabetes, and twice that number is at high risk of developing diabetes in the next 5-10 years …
Theodore Karatzas, Ioannis Vasileiadis, George Charitoudis, Efthimios Karakostas, Sofia Tseleni-Balafouta, Gregory Kouraklis
OBJECTIVE: The extent of thyroidectomy for papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) is debatable. This study investigated the rate and predictive factors of bilateral versus unilateral PTMC with the objective of identifying those patients who may benefit from total thyroidectomy …
Jivka T. Ivanova, Polet B. Doukova, Mihail A. Boyanov, Plamen R. Popivanov
OBJECTIVE: the aim of this study was to search for a possible association of low bone mineral density (bMD) with the PvuII and XbaI polymorphisms of the estrogen receptor (Er) gene in bulgarian women. DESIGN: 400 bulgarian women participated in this study. bMD was mea-sured at the lumbar spine, femoral neck and at the distal forearm. two groups were identified …
Simon Chang, Anne Skakkebæk, Claus Højbjerg Gravholt
Klinefelter syndrome (KS), though described more than 70 years ago, still imposes significant diagnostic challenges. Based on data from epidemiological studies, KS is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Although the pathophysiology and etiology behind these observations are as yet not well understood …
Gerasimos Krassas, Spyridon N. Karras, Nikolaos Pontikides
The most common thyroid diseases during pregnancy are hyper- and hypothyroidism and their variants including isolated hypothyroxinemia (hypo-T4), autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) and different types of goiter. AITD represents the main cause of hypothyroidism during pregnancy ranging in prevalence between 5 and 20% …
Erasmia Kiapekou, Dimitris Loutradis, Peter Drakakis, Evangelia Zapanti, George Mastorakos, Aristidis Antsaklis
Objective: A number of hormones and growth factors have been reported to affect the in vitro maturation of oocytes. Their exact effects on follicular growth and oocyte maturation and the mechanisms involved are still unclear. In the present study, we have investigated the effects of Growth Hormone (GH) and Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1) …
Orsolya Nemes, Noemi Kovacs, Endre Czeiter, Peter Kenyeres, Zita Tarjanyi, Laszlo Bajnok, Andras Buki, Tamas Doczi, Emese Mezosi
OBJECTIVE: There is increasing awareness among physicians of the risks of traumatic brain injury (TBI)-induced hypopituitarism. We have assessed the prevalence and risk factors of post-traumatic hypopituitarism by analyzing the TBI database of the University of Pecs …