Endocrine Abstracts

Increased RhoA/Rho-kinase (ROK) signalling is known to impair erectile function. Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) over-express penile RhoA and show an impaired erectile response. We tested treatments known to inhibit RhoA activation, on erectile function and sildenafil responsiveness in SHR. SHR have been treated for two weeks with atorvastatin (5 and 30 mg/Kg/day), or with elocalcitol (30 μg/Kg/day), a vitamin D receptor (VDR) agonist. The normotensive Wistar Kyoto ...

Epididymis (epi) is a sex steroid-sensitive duct provided with spontaneous motility, allowing sperm transport. We previously demonstrated that human epi expresses a high abundance of mRNA for ER-alpha and ER-beta. We demonstrated that in epi estrogens up-regulate either oxytocin (OT) responsiveness, acting at the receptor level, and responsiveness to endothelin-1 (ET-1), another well-known stimulator of epididymal motility. However, we did not find any significant change eithe...

The molecular mechanisms underlying the reawakening of hypothalamic GnRH neurons at puberty remain to be elucidated. Recently, the G protein-coupled receptor 54 (GPR54) and its endogenous ligand kisspeptin, encoded by the KISS1 gene, have been involved. In fact, GPR54 mutations cause idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism in human and mice. We used the previously characterized primary culture of human fetal olfactory GnRH-secreting neurons, FNC-B4, to study in vitro t...

The contractile RhoA/Rho-kinase (Rock) signalling pathway is up-regulated in penile tissue in animal models of experimental diabetes and has been proposed to contribute to diabetes-related erectile dysfunction (ED). In previous studies we demonstrated that testosterone (T) restores diabetes-induced ED by influencing the NO/cGMP/PDE5 pathway.AimTo investigate the effect of T on the RhoA/Rock signalling in course of diabetes.MethodsWe used two distinct animal models of chemical ...