Endocrine Abstracts

Abstract unavailable...

AimsThe increasing incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus with age in the context of ageing populations worldwide highlights the need to understand better factors that influence glucose homeostasis. Our hypothesis was that lifestyle change accompanying migration influences the relationship between pancreatic beta cell function (HOMA-B) and age.MethodsWe compared a specific migrant Gujarati community in Britain...

Glucocorticoid excess, Cushing's syndrome, is a recognised cause of insulin resistance and in some cases diabetes mellitus. In addition, patients develop reversible central obesity. However, the exact mechanisms that underpin the development of glucocorticoid mediated insulin resistance and central obesity are not known. We have hypothesized that at a cellular level, the tissue specific generation of cortisol from inactive cortisone through the action of 11beta-hydroxysteroid ...

The insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) are important regulators of cellular function, with effects on growth, survival and metabolism mediated primarily through the type 1 IGF receptor (IGFIR). Recent work suggested that localisation of IGFIR to a subset of lipid rafts, known as caveolae, may be important for IGF function. In this study we have investigated whether these membrane domains were involved in IGF-I-mediated cell survival by comparing signalling in caveolae-positive...

ObjectiveBariatric surgery has an important role in the management of morbidly obese patients. Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) is an established bariatric procedure. In this study, we aimed to investigate prospective changes in the entero-hypothalamic endocrine axis following RYGB, examining the meal-stimulated responses of peptide-YY (PYY), glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and ghrelin.MethodsSix female patien...

Agouti-related protein (AGRP) plays a key role in energy homeostasis with the carboxy-terminal domain acting as an endogenous antagonist of the melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4-R). It has been suggested that the amino-terminal domain of AGRP binds to syndecan-3, allowing it to regulate local concentrations of AGRP at the MC4-R. This model assumes that AGRP is secreted as a full-length peptide. However, AGRP contains several consensus prohormone convertase cleavage sites: Lys52-Lys...

CGRP, a potent vasodilator, is elevated in the intense periods during menopausal hot flushes and presently represents a candidate mediator of vasomotor symptoms. However due to the short half-life of CGRP, the local paracrine effects may be more important than systemic effects. These local paracrine effects may be mediated in conjunction with adipose tissue, due to close physical proximity with the vasculature; as well as altered oestrogen metabolism following menopause. There...

The gastrointestinal-derived hormone peptide YY (PYY) is released from intestinal L-cells post-prandially in proportion to calorie intake, and modulates food intake. Peripheral administration of PYY (3-36) reduces food intake and body weight in rodents and suppresses appetite and food intake in humans. PYY(3-36) is hypothesised to inhibit food intake via activation of the auto-inhibitory pre-synaptic neuropeptide Y (NPY) Y2 receptor (Y2R) present on arcua...

Chronic heart failure (CHF) is associated with maladaptive and prolonged neurohormonal and pro-inflammatory cytokine activation causing a metabolic shift favouring catabolism, vasodilator incapacity, and loss of skeletal muscle bulk and function. In men, androgens are important determinants of anabolic function and physical strength and also possess anti-inflammatory and vasodilatory properties. We conducted a randomised, double blind, placebo controlled trial of testosterone ...