Endocrine Abstracts

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Adrenal steroid hormones are vitally important. Deficient adrenal steroid biosynthesis causing a lack of glucocorticoid and / or mineralocorticoid hormones leads to hypoglycaemia, hypotension, salt loss and death. Concomitant changes in adrenal androgen biosynthesis are responsible for virilisation in females or under-virilisation in males. Because of the importance of adrenal steroids for overall survival and reproduction, defects in steroidogenesis and steroid action are rar...

Autoimmune Addison’s disease (AAD) is an endocrine disease resulting from the immune system’s destruction of hormone producing cells in the adrenal cortex. Autoantibodies against the steroidogenic enzyme 21-hydroxylase (21OH) is the hallmark of this form, and found in about 85 percent of patients in European populations. Risk factors are both genetic and presumably environmental. Genes associated with AAD are MHC class II especially the DR locus, MHC class I and MIC-...