The occurrence of CDI in patients with lymphocytic hypophysitis seems due to an autoimmune hypothalamic involvement rather than an expansion of the pituitary inflammatory process. To search for AVP antibody in these patients may help to identify those of them prone to develop an autoimmune CDI. The detection of AHA targeting CRH-secreting cells in some patients with GH/ACTH deficiency but with APA targeting only GH-secreting cells indicates that an autoimmune aggression to hypothalamus is jointly responsible for their hypopituitarism.

Retinoic acid (RA) and sodium butyrate (NaB) are regulators of cell growth and differentiation. We studied their effect on normal (SVC1) or v-Ki-rastransformed (Ki-SVC1) rat seminal vesicle (SV) epithelial cell lines. The treatment of these cells with 10 7

A possible resetting of pituitary-thyroid axis regulation can occur in blindness after puberty; variations of melatonin secretion could play a role in this. The inhibitory effect of melatonin on thyroid gland function found in animals does not seem to occur in humans. Elevated melatonin levels, both in patients with total blindness and in those with light perception only, suggest that more complex mechanisms other than light signalling are involved in the changes of melatonin secretion in blindness.

This letter is a position statement by an expert group of basic and clinical scientists (you can find the full list at the end of the letter) that is aimed to affirm the requirement for a revision of the Rare Disease classification by the Italian National Health system that discriminates the patients affected with these two largely overlapping clinical entities (KS and nIHH).

To verify the influence of intracranial expanding processes on circadian cortisol rhythm, we studied its occurrence in 10 normal subjects, in 5 patients with extrasellar tumour, and in 3 patients with intracranial haematoma. All patients were tested every 4 h. Cortisol was measured by RIA. A cosine function was fitted to the data by mean cosinor method to evidence any rhythm and its parameters. A significant circadian rhythm was detected in the normal subjects with acrophase at 07.55 (07.15-08.25). The patients with extrasellar tumour and those with intracranial haematoma showed a lack of circadian rhythmicity due to a significant increase of cortisol levels at 20.00 and at 00.00, respectively. Our results suggest that study of the cortisol rhythm is useful, especially when an extrasellar tumour is suspected.