Endocrine Abstracts

The importance of controlling energy balance in weight management is well established. Theoretically only a small daily adjustment in energy intake should, in time, yield significant weight loss. However, this small behavioural adjustment seems very difficult to sustain for most individuals trying to loose weight. Interventions are often developed on the assumption that appetite expression and eating behaviour in the overweight and obese functions similarly, all be it less eff...

There is increasing interest in clinical assessment of body composition, however uncertainty remains regarding the appropriate techniques. Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is often described as a gold standard, in view of its high precision (reproducibility). However, for the molecular model of body composition (dividing the body into water, fat, protein and mineral) the in vivo gold standard comprises the multi-component model, and recent comparisons of DXA again...

All metabolites in the body are in a state of constant flux, and changes in their levels may reflect either increased rate of production or decreased clearance, or both. Stable isotope technology can be used in physiological studies to determine mechanisms mediating changes in metabolites. For example, the decline in blood glucose following administration of insulin could be due to either increased uptake into peripheral tissues, or (as is the case) by suppression of hepatic g...

Although abnormal glucose metabolism defines type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), efforts to understand the pathogenesis of T2DM are increasingly focused on disordered lipid metabolism. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is a non-invasive technique which provides real time data. Its uses in metabolic studies include: 1) static measurements of energy stores e.g. intramyocellular and hepatic glycogen and triglyceride levels and, 2) dynamic measures of mitochondrial function (ATP ...