Endocrine Abstracts

Our group has recently shown that interleukin-6 (IL-6) gene knockout mice develop mature onset obesity, and that IL-6 treatment enhances oxygen consumption in resting rodents via an effect on the CNS. Moreover, IL-6 is produced and released in large quantities from skeletal muscle during exercise. We have now investigated the effects of IL-6 deficiency during exercise in IL-6 gene knockout mice.Male 4-5 months-old IL-6 gene knockout mice on C57BL/6 background (n=6) and lit...

Growth hormone (GH) raises serum levels of insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I, which is mitogenic and antiapoptotic. There is evidence that raised endogenous levels of GH and IGF-I might be associated with increased risk of certain solid cancers, but there have been no data on long-term risks of solid cancers after GH treatment.A cohort study was undertaken of cancer incidence and mortality in a cohort of 1848 patients in the UK who were treated in childhood and early adul...

The resin of the guggul tree (Commiphora mukul) has been used for millennia in Ayurvedic medicine to treat a variety of ailments. Extracts of this resin have been reported to lower LDL cholesterol in humans, and the plant sterol guggulsterone (4,17(20)-pregnadiene-3,16-dione) is thought to be the active agent. We have found that guggulsterone is an antagonist ligand for the nuclear the bile acid receptor, FXR. Guggulsterone treatment lowers hepatic cholesterol levels in wild t...