Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction and Aims: Graves’ disease (GD) is mediated by thyroid stimulating antibodies (TSAbs) to the TSH receptor (TSHR). Treatments for GD have remained unchanged for more than 40 years with less than 50% of patients achieving long term remission with medical therapy. Experimental animal models have been described which facilitate understanding of disease mechanisms and permit studies of novel immunotherapeutic interventions. However studies aiming to perturb the Th1...

Introduction: Anti-cytokine therapy may be useful for the treatment of active thyroid associated ophthalmopathy (TAO). We aimed to establish the effects of selected cytokines on intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM1) expression and adipogenesis in orbital fibroblasts (OFs) from patients with and without TAO.Methods: Orbital tissue was taken during surgery from 5 patients with TAO and 5 control subjects. Primary cultures of OFs were established and sta...

Objectives: Tri-iodothyronine (T3) can improve cardiovascular performance following cardiac surgery. Its effects on myocardial protection are unknown.Methods: We performed two consecutive randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trials (identical management protocols) on patients undergoing first time isolated elective or urgent on-pump coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). Between January 2000 and September 2004, 440 patients were re...

4-methylbenzylidene-camphor (4MBC) is an endocrine active compound used as an UV absorber in sunscreens and other cosmetics such as anti-aging lotions and day care products. 4MBC shows weak estrogenic effects on the reproductive system but strong anti-osteoporotic effects after chronic application (Seidlova-Wuttke D et al. 2005 Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 24:in press). Additionally, 4MBC can be resorbed through the skin (Janjua NR et al. 2004 J Invest Dermatol...

In thyroid cells TSH/cAMP stimulation is associated with proliferation and differentiation. The principal effector of cAMP is the protein kinase A (PKA) and events downstream PKA activation, signaling specificity and expression of PKA isoforms are largely unexplored. PKA is composed of two regulatory and two catalytic subunits. Two major isoforms of PKA (I and II) are determined by their specific regulatory subunits (RIα, RIβ, RIIα and RIIβ). A recent gene ...

Thyroid hormones play a major role in the metabolic function of mammalian cells and are of particular importance in the development of the fetal brain. The MCT8 gene has recently been shown to encode an active and specific thyroid hormone transporter. Recent reports have identified mutations in the MCT8 gene in several unrelated boys presenting with severe X-linked psychomotor retardation and elevated serum T3.Ontogeny of mRNA encoding MCT8 was examined ...

Selenium (Se) represents an essential trace element and acts as catalytic entity in thyroid hormone deiodinases (Dio), glutathione peroxidases or thioredoxin reductases. Se-deficiencies worsen a variety of conditions of which some display a sex-bias, including certain forms of cancer, autoimmune- and infectious diseases. Using C57BI/6 mice as model organism, we determined enzymatic activities and transcript levels of certain selenoproteins in various tissues. mRNA levels of th...

Background: It has recently been recognized that thyroid hormones may rapidly generate biological responses by nongenomic mechanisms that are unaffected by inhibitors of transcription and translation. The signal transduction pathways for these effects are just beginning to be defined.Aim: To examine the specific pathway via which T3 can activate Akt in pancreatic beta cells and to understand further the possible implication of a nongenomic action of T3 i...