Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Community based surveys have revealed that approximately 20% of patients taking thyroxine have low serum TSH concentrations. Likewise, a high proportion of patients (27%) have been found to have high TSH concentrations. Suboptimal thyroxine treatment, in particular overtreatment, is associated with significant potential health risks including atrial fibrillation and osteoporosis. In Sheffield, thyroxine treated patients are routinely enrolled on a computerised thyr...

At implantation, the ability of an embryo to successfully attach to the luminal epithelium is dependent on the receptive phenotype the endometrium must acquire. This spatially and temporally restricted period of uterine receptivity is defined by endometrial molecular adaptations, highly regulated by embryonic-derived signals and ovarian steroids. Critical to this isthe expression of adhesivemoleculesintegrins and osteopontin (OPN) at the foetal-maternal interface which facilit...

Objective: To assess age- and growth-dependent gene expression in children and correlate this with biological pathways.Methods: We conducted a gene expression meta-analysis on datasets from normal children curated from the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Four datasets were combined to form a group of 87 individuals ranging from 0.2 to 29.3 years of age (average 7.7±6.9yr). Analysis of gene expression data was performed using hierarchical cluster...

Background: Neanderthals split from an ancestral human population ~500,000 years ago and lived in Eurasia until 40,000 years ago. Early modern humans emerged in Africa ~350,000 years ago migrating into Eurasia 50,000 years ago. Interbreeding occurred between early modern humans and Neanderthals leading to the introduction of Neanderthal DNA into the early human population, a process termed introgression. In modern Eurasian populations around 2-4% of DNA is of Neanderthal origi...

Background: The return to active long bone growth in puberty is a distinctly human event1 and occurs ~2 years earlier in girls compared to boys. Evolutionarily conserved networks of genes are associated with the developmental phases of childhood in multiple tissues2, implying the existence of a genetic program that controls the pubertal return to growth.Objectives: To identify biological functions associated with gender and age-rela...

Integrins are cell-extracellular matrix adhesion molecules considered functionally related to the development of cancer metastasis. Starting from the dataset of mRNA-seq of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) from the TCGA, we determined the expression of fibronectin 1 (FN1) and fibronectin-binding integrins in PTC. We then analyzed the association of the expression of these two genes with the driver genes, the stage of the disease and its outcome. 355 PTCs and 58 normal thyroid...

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a heritable skeletal disorder caused by defective bone formation. OI type V (MIM#:614757) develops due to mutation in the IFITM. Mutation c.-14C >T in the IFITM5 is more common whereas only five reported patientshave a c.119C >T mutation. Patients with IFITM5:c.119C >T mutation usually have low-traumatic fractures in the prenatal period of development, severe limb and chest deformities, short height, verteb...

T3 and T4 rapidly activate intracellular signalling cascades via thyroid hormone receptor (TR)-independent actions, suggesting the existence of a plasma membrane receptor. Recent studies support a role for the RGD recognition site of integrin, a transmembrane glycoprotein, as a cell surface TR. We have demonstrated, using PCR and Western blotting, the expression of integrin αVβ3 mRNA and protein in the transformed human osteosarcoma cell line MG...

Maternal programming increases the risk of alterations in the offspring’s HPA axis. Previously we showed that maternal undernutrition in sheep induces epigenetic changes in the glucocorticoid receptors (GR) within hypothalamic energy balance pathways, without affecting HPA axis GR. However, these studies focussed on fetal tissues1. Here, we investigated whether GR is epigenetically altered in the HPA axis of adult offspring to determine the status of the pathwa...

Background: Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) may have increased cardiovascular (CV) risk but the mechanisms are unclear. Microparticles (MP), small circulating vesicles released from platelets, monocytes and endothelial cells, are elevated in patients with CV disease, and may increase CV risk through altered cell content and/or increased surface exposure of procoagulant phosphatidylserine (PS).Aims: To compare MP characteristics between women ...