Endocrine Abstracts

Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) is an autosomal dominant disorder characterised by the combined occurrence of parathyroid, pituitary and pancreatic islet tumours, and is due to mutations of the MEN1 gene, which encodes the tumour suppressor protein menin. MicroRNAs (miRNA) are non-coding single stranded RNAs that post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression. Alterations in miRNA expression, including downregulation of two miRNAs, miR-15a and miR-16-1, have been r...

Pancreatic endocrine tumours (PETs) have a low proliferation index and this partially accounts for their lack of response to chemotherapy. The assessment of proliferation rates relies largely on the use of markers such as Ki67 in patients, and uptake of DNA nucleotide precursors such as tritiated thymidine or 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU) in animals. Amongst these, BrdU is recognised to be the most reliable marker of cell proliferation as it allows the substitution of an endog...

D cells comprise 3–10% of the human endocrine pancreas and secrete somatostatin, which inhibits cell proliferation and hormone secretion. Pancreatic tumours secreting somatostatin are associated with the somatostatinoma syndrome, which is characterised by hyperglycaemia, cholethiasis, a low acid output and anaemia. We have examined for the presence of somatostatin secreting cells in pancreatic tumours from a multiple endocrine neoplastic type 1 (MEN1) knockout mouse model...

Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1), an autosomal dominant disorder characterised by the occurrence of parathyroid, pancreatic islet and anterior pituitary tumours, is due to mutations of a tumour suppressor gene, MEN1. MEN1 mutations have also been reported to cause familial isolated primary hyperparathyroidism (FIHP). Moreover, 15 identical MEN1 mutations have been reported to cause MEN1 or FIHP in unrelated families; thereby implicating a r...