Endocrine Abstracts

Chronic inflammation in adipose tissue contributes to obesity-related insulin resistance. The 3-Phosphoinositide-dependent Protein Kinase 1 (Pdk1)/forkhead transcription factor (Foxo1) pathway is important in regulating glucose and energy homeostasis, but little is known about this pathway in adipose tissue macrophages (ATMs). To investigate this, we generated transgenic mice that carried macrophage/granulocyte-specific mutations, including a Pdk1 knockout (LysMPdk1-/-), a Pdk...

Placental restriction (PR) of fetal growth impairs insulin action and metabolic control in postnatal life. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important post-transcriptional regulators, down regulating mRNA abundance or translation. We therefore determined if PR in the sheep alters miR expression in liver, skeletal muscle and adipose tissue of adult offspring and if this associates with altered abundance of their predicted molecular targets.PR was induced by pre-preg...

We reported the isolation and structural characterization of CPF-AM1 and other peptides from the skin secretion of Xenopus amieti. This study investigated the insulin-releasing activities of synthetic CPF-AM1 using clonal pancreatic cell line, BRIN-BD11 and Swiss TO mice with diet-induced insulin resistance.Acute insulin-release studies were performed in Krebs Ringer bicarbonate buffer supplemented with 5.6 mM or 16.7 mM glucose, purified synthetic pepti...

Introduction: The molecular basis of exocytosis of secretory insulin-containing granules (SGs) during biphasic glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) of pancreatic β-cells remains unclear. Syntaxins (Syns) Syn-1A and Syn-4 are t-SNARE proteins situated on the plasma membrane that have been well studied to mediate insulin exocytosis. However, Syn-3, peculiarly more abundant in insulin SGs, has unclear function in GSIS.Methods/Designs: Confocal m...

Introduction: Increased capacity for glucocorticoid regeneration in subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) by 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-1 (11HSD1) is associated with obesity and associated risk factors. We hypothesised that down-regulation of SAT 11HSD1 and/or glucocorticoid receptor-α (GRα) may explain differences in body fat distribution and metabolic risk between black and white women. The study aimed to compare the expression of 11HSD1 and glucocorticoid r...

Introduction: MicroRNAs (miRNA) are noncoding RNAs that play a central role in governing a variety of physiological and pathological processes, and there are few studies on miR involvement in diabetes mellitus. There are three principal types of diabetes, i.e., type 1 (T1DM), type 2 (T2DM) and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). In this study we performed a meta-analysis of the miRNA expression profiling of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from T1DM, T2DM and GDM pat...