Endocrine Abstracts

Background Ovarian follicles contain a specialised extracellular matrix (ECM), the basal lamina, separating granulosa cells (GC) and theca cells. An important gonadotrophin-regulated gene in ECM remodeling is LOX, which catalyses cross-linkage of collagen and elastin within ECM. Pro-LOX is proteolytically cleaved to active LOX by bone morphogenetic protein-1 (BMP-1), which also cleaves pro-collagens to mature forms. BMP-1 action is enhanced by procollagen C-proteinase enhancer...

Thyroid hormone (TH) regulation of hypothalamic function has been extensively investigated. It is driven, in part, by the presence of deiodinase enzymes in tanycytes surrounding the third ventricle converting T4 to active T3. Retinoic acid (RA), the transcriptionally active form of Vitamin A, has not previously been considered to be an important part of hypothalamic regulation. Data presented here highlights novel parallels between the TH and RA synthetic...