Endocrine Abstracts

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE), a syndrome of neurological abnormalities caused by impaired liver function, is induced by many chronic liver diseases, such as liver failure or hepatic portosystemic shunts. Whilst multiple substances reach toxic levels in the systemic circulation of HE patients, hyperammonemia (excessive ammonia) is known to be a major contributing factor to the neurological disturbances. Astrocytes utilise ammonia in generating glutamine leading to brain oedema a...

The cardiovascular properties of the natriuretic peptide family of hormones are well-characterised, and provide valuable prognostic indicators in the treatment of heart failure in humans and companion animals. Of the three main mammalian natriuretic peptides, C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) remains the most enigmatic, even though CNP represents the ancestral natriuretic peptide from which Atrial- (ANP) and B-type (BNP) natriuretic peptides evolved through gene duplication. We...

The mammalian natriuretic peptide family consists of three members, Atrial-, B-type, and C-type natriuretic peptides (ANP, BNP, and CNP respectively), and exert their effects on blood pressure, sodium homeostasis, growth and reproduction, via their selective guanylyl cyclase receptors, GC-A or GC-B. Previous attempts to map spatial expression profiling have generated conflicting results, due predominantly to the range of techniques employed, and the relative paucity of tools t...