Neuroendocrinology and Pituitary Disorders

Hormones and their regulation have always attracted and greatly fascinated me. Regardless of the specific biological activity, it has always been demonstrated to be somehow closely linked to a hormonal message or control. All organs—the brain and the entire central nervous system (CNS)) included—are both the target and source of a great plethora of hormones and neuropeptides that transmit signals and permit the best performance of our biology.

The hypothalamus is central in such regulation of all endocrine glands, and the pituitary is the first target of hypothalamic activity, similarly for many other neuropeptides released in this area of the brain. The perfect integration of hypothalamic activity with the pituitary response drives most of the endocrine tissues of our biology.

Hormones travel in the blood throughout the body and to many tissues and organs, where they control growth, blood pressure, energy management, all functions of the sex organs, thyroid glands and metabolism as well as some aspects of pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, water/salt concentration at the kidneys, temperature regulation and pain relief.

This section welcomes manuscript submissions on all aspects of Neuroendocrinology and Pituitary Disorders, including original and review articles, and commentaries involving clinical and basic research. Being degreed in Endocrinology and in Obstetrics and Gynecology, my aim is to also enrich this section with research on endocrine diseases that impair reproductive ability and induce infertility. Numerous neuroendocrine and endocrine impairments form the basis of abnormal reproductive failure, both in males and females.

The journal welcomes submissions of manuscripts examining the following areas:

• Acromegaly
• Adult growth hormone deficiency
• Pituitary tumors and pituitary carcinomas
• Craniopharyngiomas
• Cushing’s syndrome
• Development of the pituitary gland
• Disorders of growth hormone in childhood
• Hyperprolactinemia
• Hypophysitis
• Hypopituitarism
• Normal physiology of growth hormones in adults
• The hypothalamic–pituitary–thyroid axis
• The pineal gland and melatonin
• The neurohypophysis: the endocrinology of vasopressin and oxytocin
• The pineal gland and pineal tumors
• Thyrotropin-secreting pituitary adenomas
• Hyperandrogenic states and PCOS
• Stress-induced endocrine impairments