Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: National audits suggest significant variation in experience of individual surgeons performing adrenalectomies. A 2016 cross specialty consensus statement recommended that adrenal surgeons perform a minimum of six adrenalectomies per year given improved outcomes with higher volume surgeons. Patients in the Scottish Highlands requiring adrenalectomy are referred to a single Consultant Urologist with a specialist interest in retroperitoneal surgery based in Raigmore...

The human foetal adrenal gland (HFA) comprises of two distinct zones; the foetal zone (FZ) and the definitive zone (DZ). The subcapsular DZ has been proposed to contain a population of adrenocortical progenitors that migrate centripetally to populate the FZ. Rodent studies have identified sonic hedgehog (SHH) signalling in a subcapsular non-steroidogenic progenitor population and its disruption during development causes adrenal hypoplasia. The involvement of SHH in the human f...

Sleep and cortisol cycles have a complex inter-relationship that is not fully understood. Slow wave sleep appears to have an inhibitory effect on cortisol production but the effect of other stages is not so clear. From diseases, such as Addisons disease and Cushings syndrome, we know that cortisol levels have an impact on the quality of sleep. In insomnia and depression, both sleep and cortisol is altered.To investigate this relationship properly a minim...

Background: 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (25(OH)D) deficiency is prevalent in the Scottish paediatric population. Paediatric oncology patients are at even higher risk of becoming deficient because they spend more time indoor, often have an inadequate dietary intake and increased 25(OH)D catabolism during treatment. We aimed to assess 25(OH)D and parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels before and after supplementation in Scottish children with cancer.Methods: Plasm...

Estrogen receptor α (ERα) is a key transcriptional regulator in the majority of breast cancers. ERα-positive patients are frequently treated with tamoxifen, but resistance is common. Through ChIP-seq analyses, we presviously identified direct target genes of ERα acting in complex with SRC1, SRC2 or SRC3 (Zwart et al., 2011 EMBO J). Only the 111 genes there were under direct control of ERα in conjunction with SRC3 (but not the other two p160s) predicted...