Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Considerable overlap of IGF-I levels exists between normal subjects and those with severe GHD determined by conventional testing of GH status. Recognised factors influencing IGF-I status in GHD patients include age, gender, timing of onset of GHD and exogenous oestrogen therapy, but these do not fully explain the GH/IGF-I discordance in severe GHD. The primary structures of prolactin and GH are similar. Effects of hypoprolactinaemia are not well described in humans...

IGF-I is a marker of activity of the growth axis. It is accepted that the interpretation of IGF-I values requires age- and gender-specific reference ranges (RR).We have studied IGF-I assay performance by circulating 2 blood samples with different clinical scenarios to 23 centers [IDS-OCTEIA (n=2), DPC-Immulite (3), DPC-Immulite 2000 (4), in-house RIA (1), Nichols-Advantage (10) and Nichols-IRMA (3)] participating in the UK-NEQAS IGF-I scheme. Participant...

Raised levels of IGF-I have been associated with risk of developing several cancers including breast carcinoma. In addition to promoting mitogenesis in breast cancer cells, a number of observations suggest a role for inhibition of apoptosis by IGF-I receptor activation. Ligand binding to IGF-IR leads to activation of both the phosphoinositide-3'-kinase (PI3K) and the Ras/Raf/MAPKinase pathways. Deprivation of serum growth factors induces apoptosis in MCF-7 breast cancer cells ...

APS I is a rare condition with autosomal recessive inheritance. We report a series of three sisters (Table 1), affected by APS I, who all had a mutation of the autoimmune regulator (AIRE) gene. An index case (A) died at 26 years old due to vascular complications.The management of primary hypoparathyroidism in case A, who also had type I diabetes was also complicated by nephrocalcinosis, renal calculi, chronic renal failure and vascular calcification. In ...

Approximately 50% of patients with severe AGHD (defined by the international consensus criteria, peak GH <3 ng/ml) have a normal age- and gender-related IGF-I. It remains unclear whether in these individuals IGF-I is GH-dependent.We performed a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, cross-over study on the effect of pegvisomant (20 mg daily for 14 days) on the relationship between GH and IGF-I in 3 age-, gender- and BMI-matched cohorts (Norms:...

Iodothyronine deiodinases are important enzymes for metabolism of thyroid hormones. These enzymes which are expressed in a variety of tissues are able to catalyze removal of iodine from thyroid hormones. Iodothyronine deiodinases I and II (DIO1 and DIO2) remove iodine from T4 to convert it to a more biologically active T3. The relative contribution of different tissue deiodinases to the establishment of a euthyroid state (proper production and concentration of T3) is not known...

A Multicystic Dysplastic Kidney (MCDK) is a congenital, renal, cystic transformation usually diagnosed perinatally with 1:1000 to 4,000 incidence1. The natural history of MCDK is disputed with involution1, enlargement and development of hypertension2, infection and malignant transformation reported in the literature. We describe the case of a 25-year-old chef in whom an occult MCDK was incidentally detected. He presented with a four month histo...

Little is know about the effects of IGFs on the early preantral stages of follicle development. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of IGF-I on recruitment and survival of human preantral follicles in vitro. Small ovarian cortical biopsies were obtained at laparoscopy, with informed consent and local ethical committee approval, from 27 premenopausal women. The tissue was divided and randomly allocated to 5 conditions. The first piece was fixed immediately as a...

Somapacitan is a long-acting growth hormone (GH) derivative designed for once-weekly subcutaneous administration. Correct assessment of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) levels is essential during treatment of GH deficiency (GHD) and must account for fluctuations over a dosing interval. We evaluated whether reliable estimates of weekly mean and peak IGF-I could be obtained from a single IGF-I sample. A population pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic model was available from phar...

Aims: HDL have many diverse functions. The goal of this study was to determine the differential effect of HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) and apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) on the development of type 2 diabetes (T2D). In addition, this study determined the association between the ratio of HDL-C to apoA-I (HA) and incident T2D.Methods: A total of 27 988 subjects with impaired fasting glucose (IFG) (18 266 men and 9722 women) aged 21 to 91 years (mean age 43.5 years)...