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 …
Charilaos Stylianou, Assimina Galli-Tsinopoulou, Dimitrios Farmakiotis, Israel Rousso, Michael Karamouzis, George Koliakos, Sanda Nousia-Arvanitakis
OBJECTIVE: Ghrelin and leptin levels are influenced by body fat (BF%), pubertal stage and possibly insulin resistance (IR). The aim of our study was: 1) To compare fasting ghrelin and leptin levels between obese and non-obese, adolescents, 2) to investigate possible correlations of these hormones with BF %, as well as IR…
Olga Karapanou, Anastasios Papadimitriou
It has been more than 120 years since a committee of the Royal College of Physicians in London linked the paramount role of the thyroid gland to normal brain development.1 Currently, all developed countries and an increasing number of the developing ones have implemented the neonatal hypothyroidism screening test for early diagnosis …
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 …
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) …
Zvi Laron
Primary or secondary IGF1 deficiency has been implicated in shortening of lifespan. This paper reviews available data on the influence of IGF1 deficiency on lifespan and longevity in animals and man…
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% …
Iraklis Perysinakis, Chrysanthi Aggeli, Gregory Kaltsas, George N. Zografos
OBJECTIVE: Complete surgical resection is the only potentially curative treatment of localized pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. Unfortunately, a significant proportion of these patients present with unresectable locally advanced tumors or massive metastatic disease. Recently, a new therapeutic approach for this subset of patients has emerged consisting of neoadjuvant therapy followed by surgical exploration in responders …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Laura Mihalache, Andreea Gherasim, Otilia Niță, Maria Christina Ungureanu, Sergiu Serghei Pădureanu, Radu Sebastian Gavril, Lidia Iuliana Arhire
Ghrelin is a gut peptide composed of 28 amino acids mostly secreted in the gastric fundus mucosa. It was isolated and described in 1999 by Kojima et al. and only three years later its specific receptor, GHSR1a, was also identified. Ghrelin, the endogenous ligand for the GH secretagogue receptor, is the only peripheral orexigenic hormone that activates the receptors to be found especially in the appetite center (hypothalamus and pituitary gland) …
Leonidas H Duntas, Constantinos Parisis
The aim of this review is to provide an update on drug abuse by athletes, their mode of action and the technical difficulties of detection. The most common doping agents are the anabolic steroids (AS), testosterone derivatives modified to take advantage of the anabolic rather than the androgenic properties of the hormone…
Angeliki Galani, Sophia Kitsiou-Tzeli, Christalena Sofokleous, Emmanuel Kanavakis, Ariadni Kalpini-Mavrou
The end-organ resistance to androgens has been designated as Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS), an X-linked disorder caused by mutations in the Androgen Receptor (AR) gene. It is generally accepted that defects in the AR gene prevent the normal development of both internal and external genital structures in 46,XY individuals …
Kalliopi Pazaitou-Panayiotou, Eva Tiensuu Janson, Triantafyllia Koletsa, Vassiliki Kotoula, Mats Stridsberg, Georgios Karkavelas, Georgia Karayannopoulou
OBJECTIVE: Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) is dependent upon binding of radiolabelled peptides to their respective receptor expressing cells. The main objective of this study was to characterize the expression of somatostatin receptor (SSTR) subtypes in non-medullary thyroid …
Olga Karapanou, Marinella Tzanela, Marietta Christoforaki, Lida Papastathopoulou, Paraskevi Moutsatsou, Efi Botoula, Stylianos Tsagarakis
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the therapeutic trends and long-term outcome of treatment modalities for acromegaly in our center over a 40-year period. Design: We retrospectively studied 321 acromegalic patients (145 males/176 females) diagnosed and treated from the 1970s until September 2013 …
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…
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) …
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 …
Marco Di Monaco, Carlotta Castiglioni, Rosa Tappero
OBJECTIVE: Hip-fracture patients with vitamin D deficiency can have either secondary hyperparathyroidism or normal levels of parathyroid hormone (PTH). We hypothesized that bone mineral density (BMD) could be lower in patients with high PTH levels than in those with normal levels of PTH, irrespectively of the severity of vitamin D depletion …
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…
Zoran Erlic, Hartmut P.H. Neumann
Pheochromocytomas and Paragangliomas (PGL) form the group of paraganglial tumours which can occur in any paraganglia from the skull base to the pelvic floor. The terminology is not uniform. While the World Health Organization (WHO) applies pheochromocytoma exclusively to adrenal tumours, many clinicians use the term pheochromocytoma also for extra-adrenal abdominal and thoracic tumours, since by tradition …
Peter Laurberg, Stig Andersen, Inge Bülow Pedersen, Nils Knudsen, Allan Carlé
Although autoimmune hypothyroidism has generally been considered to be a disease that mainly develops because of genetic aberrations and for which adjustment of environment would bring about but slight risk modification, this understanding is increasingly appearing to be incorrect …
Georgia Ntali, Eva Kassi, Maria Alevizaki
Cancer immunotherapy has introduced a novel class of drugs known as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). They enhance antitumour immunity by blocking negative regulators (checkpoints) of T cell function that exist on both immune and tumour cells. ICIs targeting CTLA-4 and PD-1/PDL-1 have dramatically changed the outcome of patients with several advanced-stage malignancies but they may lead to a variety of inflammatory toxicities and autoimmune …
Maria P. Yavropoulou, John G. Yovos
Postprandial variation of bone turnover markers and the closed relationship between bone remodeling and nutrient supply has been extensively studied in the past few years, but the underlying pathophysiologic mechanisms remain largely unknown …