Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Patients being cured of craniopharyngioma (CP) often suffer from severe hypothalamic obesity due to tumor localization or therapeutic interventions, which has a major impact on increased mortality and reduced quality of life. Gastric bypass surgery (GBS) was suggested to be an effective therapeutic option for weight reduction in those patients. However, long-term changes in body weight and postsurgical complications are unknown.Methods: 5 pat...

Glucocorticoid feed-back in pituitary corticotrophs represses POMC transcription and ACTH release. Serum and glucocorticoid-induced kinase 1 (Sgk1) has been identified as an immediate early target of glucocorticoids in many tissues, however its expression and function in corticotrophs are unknown.We show here that Sgk1 is present in the human pituitary gland at both mRNA and protein levels. Double-immunohistochemistry revealed that Sgk1 is expressed in d...

Gestational weight gain has been linked to obesity in women of childbearing age. Mothers who breastfeed present less postpartum weight retention. The underlying pathophysiological mechanisms are unknown. This study aimed at investigating the impact of breastfeeding on maternal appetite-regulating hormones.The clinical trial recruited 29 women divided in three age- and BMI-matched groups. The first group included 10 fully breastfeeding mothers of 3 to 6 m...

Background: Untreated GH-deficiency (GHD) in adults has been suggested to be associated with an increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). Proposed causative factors are the tendency to overweight and the insulin resistance due to central adiposity.Patients and methods: The KIMS (Pfizer International Metabolic Database) was used to evaluate the prevalence of DM in both childhood-onset (CO; n=1977; 56% males) and in adult-onset (AO; ...

Oxytocin is a hormone and neurotransmitter with antiinflammatory and neuroimmune-modulatory properties. Physiological states of elevated plasma oxytocin levels are associated with reduced hypothalamic–pituitaty–adrenal response to different stressors. We examined the effect of exogenous oxytocin administration on bacterial endotoxin induced innate immune responses in humans. Ten healthy men received in a randomized, placebo-controlled, cross-over design (1) placebo, ...

The mechanisms responsible for the progressive failure of hypoglycemia counter-regulation in type-1 diabetes (T1DM) are poorly understood. Alterations of brain energy metabolism could influence glucose sensing by the brain and, thus contribute to hypoglycemia associated autonomic failure. Thus, we measured intraneuronal kinetics of total ATP-synthesis from PCr (kfor) in T1DM patients and effects of hypo/hyperglycemia on this brain energy metabolism. Healthy n...

Recent data suggest that circulating retinol binding protein-4 (RBP4) is involved in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance in rodents and humans. Moreover, protein C inhibitor (PCI) which specifically binds retinoic acid was found to be increased in myocardial infarction survivors who are also insulin-resistant.Therefore, we investigated the association of insulin resistance with plasma retinol binding factors (RBP4 and PCI active antigen) in nondiabeti...

Insulinomas are thought to be the result of reduced ß-cell death and hyperproliferation of this specific and highly differentiated cell type. Specific growth- factors are responsible for inducing ß- cell replication and might therefore be involved in insulinoma formation. Pluripotent islet progenitor cells are thought to be located at pancreatic ducts, which can give rise to novel islets as well as exocrine pancreas formation. TGFß1 signalling disruption has bee...

Objective: Establishment of rodent in vitro cell systems for the extension of the functional data about the recently cloned neuroendocrine marker secretagogin.Methods: 1. DNA-cloning; 2. Antibody generation; 3. Immunoblotting and Immunohistochemistry; 4. Cell-transfection; 5. Luciferase Reporter Assays; 6. ELISA.Results: 1. We characterized the rat homologue of human secretagogin (rat secretagogin) and demonstrated the homol...

Introduction: In patients with cured Cushing’s syndrome, comorbidities often persist after remission of glucocorticoid excess. Here we investigate long-term comorbidities in patients with Cushing’s syndrome in remission, and their relationship to metabolic and hormonal markers at the initial diagnosis of the disease.Methods/design: We evaluated 118 patients with cured Cushing’s syndrome (55 Cushing’s disease, 55 adrenal Cushing’s...