Endocrine Abstracts

Mice and rats are unusual amongst mammals for having 2 structurally similar but non-allelic insulin genes. Both genes are functional but their expression patterns relative to each other have not been conclusively determined. The insulin 1 gene (ins 1) has been shown in several studies to be selectively glucose responsive in mice and rats. We have used the MIN6 cell line to examine passage-related changes in ins 1 and 2 expression and to test glucose responsiveness of the 2 gen...

We conducted a retrospective notes analysis to determine the incidence, prevalence and predictive factors of idiopathic postprandial hypoglycaemia (IPH) in a population of 230 000 served by our Hospital.Using the Biochemistry Database all patients who had a 5-hour oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) from 1995 to 2001 were identified, and their notes were reviewed. Demographic, clinical and biochemical data were recorded for each patient. The latter includ...

Insulin resistance is an established consequence of glucocorticoid excess. In rats, administration of the synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone decreases the sensitivity of glucose oxidation to insulin in soleus muscle strips, but sensitivity of lactate formation is unimpaired. In rats, cortisol impairs pyruvate tolerance and, in man, dexamethasone decreases whole-body glucose oxidation. The present study explored possible mechanisms that might underlie these effects. Activat...

Normal range glycemia towards higher side has been shown to have a higher risk than lower range of glycemia(1).People with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) with better glycemic control would be an ideal step towards prevention of coronary heart disease CHD.Prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes remains high(2). Diagnosis of diabetes is made too late in too many patients. By the time diagnosis is made complications have already settled ...

According to the hypothesis, the capillary albumin leakage parallels the degree of microalbuminuria, probably reflecting a generalized basement membrane abnormality, and relates with microvascular disfunction. The AIM of our study was to estimate postocclusive reactive hyperaemic response in patients with microalbuminuria. MATERIALS: Patients with microalbuminuria were divided into two groups: 18 patients with diabetic nephropathy (N) and 18 non-diabetic patients with glomerul...

The teratogenic effects of diabetes and the diabetogenic effects of pregnancy make tight glycaemic control during gestation essential. Regular review of the patients is neccessary though the short intervals between appointments make the relatively slow-to-change HbA1c unsuitable for making clinical decisions. Instead, the clinician must rely on home blood glucose (HBG)monitoring results from the patient. These depend on having an accurate meter and good technique aswell as hon...

Much interest has recently focused on the effects in adulthood of an altered in utero environment. We have previously shown that the adult offspring of diabetic rats show reduced urinary calcium output and re-modelling of bone (Hamilton et al 1998, Proc. 3rd Europ. Kidney Res. Forum). Here we tested the hypothesis that changes in renal handling of calcium are the primary in utero effect of diabetes mellitus and are present immediately after birt...

Serum IGF-I is increasingly used, and IGFBP-3 has been proposed, as a marker of treatment efficacy in patients with acromegaly. IGF-I bioactivity and half-life are dependent on the degree of IGF-I incorporation into 150kDa ternary complexes with IGFBP-3 and ALS. When serum GH is lowered in patients with acromegaly all three ternary complex components decline, but effects on ternary complex formation have not been described. We investigated GH action on ternary complex formatio...

Use of surrogate indices of insulin resistance depends on comparability of the relationship between glucose and insulin concentrations between different groups. It is unknown whether such surrogate estimates are equally applicable in different ethnic groups with marked differences in insulin sensitivity. We compared markers of insulin sensitivity and secretion in 78 (43 European, 19 Afro-Caribbean and 16 South Asian) normoglycaemic women of (median (lower-upper quartile)) 34.7...