Endocrine Abstracts

Vascular disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in people who have diabetes. Hyperglycaemia is associated with increased transcriptional activity of nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) in the vasculature. NFAT activation enhances expression of pro-inflammatory mediators including osteopontin, COX2 and IL6, implicated in the development of vascular disease. This study investigated the therapeutic potential of NFAT inhibition on the progression of microvascul...

Human plasma contains both cortisol (F) and corticosterone (B). B has been largely neglected in humans as it is 10–20 times less abundant however previous studies suggest B and F have differential tissue-specific actions. Compared with F, B has an enhanced response to ACTH, relatively higher concentrations in brain and CSF and differential transmembrane trafficking by ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters. Plasma F is bound to corticosteroid-binding globulin (CBG) and a...

Glucocorticoids are routinely administered to pregnant women at risk of pre-term delivery to mature foetal organs and improve neonatal survival. Previous work in glucocorticoid receptor (GR)-deficient mice showed that GR activation is essential for maturation of the foetal heart. Here, we tested the hypotheses that i) antenatal glucocorticoid exposure, prior to the normal increase in glucocorticoid levels, will advance foetal heart maturation and ii) this would depend on mater...

Background: Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) predominantly affects obese women of childbearing age. IIH is characterised by increased intracranial pressure (ICP) which results in visual loss and disabling headaches. ICP dis-regulation results from imbalance of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) production rate (at the choroid plexus epithelial cells) and drainage. Treatments for IIH are limited but weight loss is established as disease modifying.Glucago...

GnRH neurons are vital for reproductive competence. These neurons originate mainly in the nasal epithelium and migrate to the preoptic region of the hypothalamus during foetal development. Defective migration may result in Hypogonadotropic Hypogonadism (HH), a condition in which puberty is never or only partially achieved.Little is known about the molecular ontogeny and regulation of GnRH neurons. Their anatomical localisation and small numbers (about 10...

Increased intake of sodium is postulated to be controlled by aldosterone-sensitive cells in a select region of the adult mouse brain, the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS). These cells express the enzyme 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 (HSD2) which inactivates glucocorticoids, allowing selective activation of mineralocorticoid receptors by aldosterone. However in the developing brain, HSD2 is widely expressed to protect against adverse glucocorticoid action, whi...

Background: Adipogenesis is a key process leading to adipose tissue (AT) expansion. However, managing this event is critical to limit excessive fat accumulation and disease risk. Adipogenesis appears controlled in part, through Wnt10b signalling which reduces adipogenesis via inhibiting CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein alpha (CEBPα) although the molecular mechanism remains unclear.Aims: Abdominal subcutaneous AT (AbdSc AT) was collected from a, non-di...

Background: Miscarriage is the spontaneous loss of pregnancy occurring prior to 24 weeks of gestation, and can be devastating for affected couples. Abnormal placental development is observed in two-thirds of miscarriages. Recently, the circulating placental markers kisspeptin, prokineticin-1 (PK-1), soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt1), soluble endoglin (sEng) and placental growth factor (PlGF) have been identified and investigated for potential associations with miscarr...

Traditionally, oestradiol measurement is performed by immunoassay. The sensitivity of these assays is not sufficiently sensitive for certain patient groups such as males, post-menopausal females and children. There is also a potential for interference from structurally related compounds or heterophilic antibodies. LC–MS/MS is an attractive alternative as it has increased sensitivity and specificity.We reviewed the requests for LC–MS/MS analysis...

Background: Prior to 2014 Portsmouth patients with Turners syndrome (TS) were seen in a variety of endocrine clinics. Screening investigations e.g. cardiac echo, necessitated further appointments. The Turners Syndrome Support Society (TSSS) recommend that ladies should be under the care of a specialist multi-disciplinary TS clinic, equipped to manage the specific medical problems associated with the syndrome.Innovation: Portsmouth Endocrine Department es...

Background: Heterozygote germline mutations in the aryl-hydrocarbon receptor interacting protein (AIP) gene play a role in the pathogenesis of pituitary adenoma development in familial isolated pituitary adenoma as well as simplex pituitary adenoma cases. AIP mutation positive patients develop often aggressively growing tumours in early teenage years.Aims: The aim of this study was to perform comparative gene expression analysis of AIP mutation-positive ...

Pituitary tumor-transforming gene binding factor (PBF) is a ubiquitous glycoprotein which is over-expressed in thyroid, breast and other endocrine cancers, and modulates cellular invasion, radioiodine uptake and thyroid hormone efflux. Papillary thyroid cancer patients with high PBF expression show decreased disease-specific survival compared to those with lower expression. PBF expression has recently been correlated with breast cancer metastasis and colon cancer extra-mural v...