Endocrine Abstracts

Growth hormone (GH) has profound anabolic effects on bone, but its use as a treatment for patients with osteoporosis has only resulted in small increases in BMD. The low serum IGF-I demonstrated in men with idiopathic osteoporosis may be important in the aetiology of this disease and has been attributed to GH hypo-secretion, though there are conflicting reports of this. Insensitivity to the actions of GH has also been suggested. We studied the GH-IGF-I axis in otherwise health...

Hypercalcaemia is a moderately common condition accounting for approximately 1% of all acute general medical presentations. Guidance on emergency management of the hypercalcaemic patient, aimed primarily at the generalist and at guiding initial stages of management has recently been developed by the society (https://www.endocrinology.org/policy/docs/13-02_EmergencyGuidance-Acute...

MEN (multiple endocrine neoplasia) I disease represents a compilation of multiple endocrine neoplasms affecting a patient in the course of a life-time. It thus represents a phenotype which has survived over many years. Pituitary neoplasms, lipomas and parathyroid hyperplasia are observed in the disease. The aim was to describe a patient with MEN I disease who presented with lipomas and acromegaly in his early adulthood and developed primary hyperparathyroidism in his senior ye...

The factors affecting the regulation of early follicular development are not fully understood. Culture of ovarian cortical biopsies provides a means for investigating initiation of follicle growth. IGF-I has been implicated in the early development of follicles in the primate ovary and the aim of this study was to investigate the effects on IGF-I on recruitment, growth and survival of human preantral follicles. Small ovarian cortical biopsies were obtained, with informed conse...

Introduction: Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) is a complex syndrome including hyperphagia, pituitary hormone deficiencies, low muscle mass and cognitive impairment. Treatment with recombinant Growth Hormone (GH) has beneficial effects on body composition, physical performance, cognition, psychomotor development, respiratory function, and quality of life of patients with PWS. GH treatment has a narrow therapeutic range. Clinicians measure serum immunoreactive Insulin-like Growth Fa...

Endocrinopathy is common in patients with HIV and presents a distinct series of challenges. Polypharmacy is common (both of prescribed and non-prescribed drugs) with the potential for drug-drug interactions and endocrine adverse effects of longterm medication. Structural pathology is also commoner than in the general population with the potential for both tumours and atypical infections affecting endocrine organs. Altered binding proteins are common, particularly high SHBG, af...

Background: There is considerable evidence to support a role for the GH/IGF-I axis in the development of breast cancer. We have previously demonstrated that IGF-I is expressed in both normal and malignant breast tissue, but that approximately 10% of primary breast cancers reveal no IGF-I mRNA expression. However the molecular differences between IGF-I positive and IGF-I negative tumours is unknown.Aims: To investigate the molecular differences between IG...

As we learn more and more about the complexity of biological systems there is a real risk of being drowned in data but starved of information. This is increasingly recognised by grant funders and is certainly true of the signal transduction field where the complexity of signaling networks makes our traditional intuitive approaches look increasingly inadequate. For my own work on GnRH signaling, one solution has been to collaborate with mathematicians and engineers. Success in ...

Early follicular development in polycystic ovaries (PCO) is abnormal; a higher proportion of follicles have entered the growing phase than in normal ovaries [1]. IGF-I stimulates the initiation of preantral follicle growth in a human tissue culture system using a growth factor-reduced extracellular matrix, Matrigel [2]. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of IGF-I on early preantral follicle development in polycystic and normal ovaries. Small ovarian cortical biop...

Aim: – to study functional status of pituitary–gonads (PG) axis in males with obesity.Materials and methods: We evaluated 15 males with obesity without other associated pathology. Mean age of patients was 28.3 years old. Control group constituted by 20 healthy men with different age.All patients underwent clinical and biochemical evaluations including endocrine check, lipids profile, hormonal profile (LH, FSH, prolactin, ...