Endocrine Abstracts

It is well established that catecholamines have potent actions on adrenocortical function and steroidogenesis in different species. The effect of these substances on steroid production of the human adrenal cell line H295R is the subject of this study. H295R is the first adrenocortical cell line capable of secreting the normal range of adrenal steroid products (i.e. mineralocorticoids, glucocorticoids and adrenal androgens) and since free of chromaffin cells, it appears to be a...

Two members of the melanocortin (MC) receptor family are abundantly expressed in the adrenal cortex, namely MC2R and MC5R. MC2R binds only ACTH and is known as the ACTH receptor, the role of MC5R however is still under investigation. It is known that alpha-MSH stimulates aldosterone secretion by the rat adrenal cortex, by an MC2R-independent mechanism, although the receptor involved has not been identified. The experiments were designed to investigate the role of MC5R in the a...