[Endocrine disorders in liver diseases]

Liver is involved in the biological actions of a large number of circulating hormones. Liver diseases are often associated with hormonal disorders owing to the duration, severity or beginning time of the disease. Sometimes the cellular dysfunction of the liver is directly responsible for the endocrine disease, as in liver cirrhosis; sometimes, the dysfunction causing organic or functional liver impairment is at the origin of the endocrine damage: this is easily remarkable during systemic diseases as idiopathic haemochromatosis, in which iron deposition in the endocrine parenchyma is responsible of the dysfunction of many hormones' synthesis and secretion. This review gives a summary of the relations between liver diseases and endocrinological dysfunctions, dwelling upon the most recent literature acquisitions.