Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is the most frequent cause of diabetes of the exocrine pancreas (DEP). Although the specific alterations of DEP are not completely understood, individuals with DEP are considered affected by pancreatic endocrine insufficiency and treated with insulin. To investigate the functional alterations of DEP, we evaluated differences in glucose metabolism in patients with and without CP, classified according to their glucose tolerance (NGT, IGT, DM...

Andrea Dunaif, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, United States. AbstractDr Dunaif received her MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, trained in New York and Boston and rose to rank of Associate Professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Since 1992 Dr Dunaif has held posts at Brigham and Women’s Hospital as Director of Women’s Health and Chief of the...

Context: Glucocorticoids (GC) mediate some of the adverse health-related consequences of circadian misalignment, such occurs in shift workers who have an increased cardio-metabolic, immune and cancer risk. Investigating the effect of circadian cortisol exposure in patients with GC excess and defect is crucial. In a therapeutic perspective large attention has been given to the total daily GC exposure, much less to the timing-of-the-day relative exposure. Clock genes are essenti...

Background: Bone marrow adipose tissue (BMAT) comprises >10% of total adipose mass in healthy humans and further increases during caloric restriction (CR). However, BMAT function during CR and other conditions remains poorly understood. Circulating glucocorticoids also increase during CR, and glucocorticoid therapy increases BMAT; thus, we hypothesise that glucocorticoid excess mediates BMAT expansion during CR. Many effects of endogenous glucocor...

A sparse population of a few hundred primarily hypothalamic neurons forms the hub of a complex neuroglial network that controls reproduction in mammals by secreting the ‘master molecule’, gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). Both the Kisspeptin input on GnRH neurons and timely changes in GnRH expression are necessary for the onset of puberty. However, the exact molecular mechanisms underlying this process remain elusive. Here, we report that a dramatic inversion in...

The antitumor properties of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), with respect to both cancer prevention and therapy, have raised considerable interest in the last two decades, leading to well consolidated evidences in gastrointestinal cancers, especially colorectal cancer. NSAID action has been proposed to occur through two independent modes: a COX-dependent one, mainly involving the inhibition of COX-2-mediated PGE2 production, and a COX-independent one, mainly inv...

Environmental endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are exogenous chemicals that perturb hormones and their actions. Exposures to EDCs during critical periods of life, especially in the developing fetus and infant, are particularly problematic due to the high sensitivity of the perinatal hypothalamus to endogenous hormones and exogenous compounds. Our lab has been using a rat model of prenatal exposure to two classes of EDCs: a polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) mixture used previ...

IVF treatment would gain considerable advantage from a safe and efficient oocyte cryopreservation method. Embryo freezing, which involves important legal and ethical drawbacks, would be no longer needed. Women facing a destiny of premature ovarian failure or requiring oocyte donation would also benefit from oocyte cryopreservation. Studies conducted in the last few years suggest that oocyte cryopreservation can be applied in a systematic and reproducible fashion, in some cases...

PCOS is a complex genetic disease resulting from the interplay between susceptibility genes and environmental factors. The syndrome is characterized by hyperandrogenism, disordered gonadotropin secretion, profound insulin resistance and, frequently, obesity. It is a leading risk factor for type 2 diabetes mellitus and MBS in adolescent and young adult women. In PCOS, MBS risk increases with increasing androgen levels, independent of insulin resistance and obesity, and antagoni...

PCOS is a complex genetic disease resulting from the interplay between susceptibility genes and environmental factors. Hyperandrogenemia consistent with an alteration in ovarian and adrenal steroidogenesis is the major reproductive phenotype in families of women with PCOS, including mothers and brothers. Reproductive age sisters have two affected phenotypes: (1) hyperandrogenemia and chronic anovulation or (2) hyperandrogenemia with regular menses and apparently normal fertili...