Endocrine Abstracts

Ghrelin is a 28 amino acid n-octanoylated peptide which is the natural agonist for the growth hormone secretagogue receptor and which potently stimulates GH release in vivo (1). We studied the effects of a somatostatin infusion on Ghrelin release in normal subjects.STUDY PROTOCOLFour females and five males, 25-40 years of age, body mass index < 28 kg per m2 were studied. Local ethics committee permission was obtained for ...

We hypothesised that normal regulation of 25(OH)D3-24-hydroxylase (encoded by CYP24) determines the autocrine/paracrine action of 1,25(OH)2D3 in normal breast and prostate epithelial cells. Furthermore, these processes are compromised in malignancy.We therefore studied the regulation of CYP24, amongst a panel of breast and prostate cancer cell lines (ZR-75-1, T47-D, MCF-7, MDA-MB-231 breast cells and LNCaP, PC-3 and DU-145 prostate cells) that display d...

Introduction: Observations in patients with GH disturbances and in normal populations have suggested that GH/IGF1 activity could have anti-inflammatory effects. On the other hand, in vitro studies have shown that IGF1 may stimulate the immune system.Methods/design: The study population consisted of 12 healthy volunteers (mean age 36, range 27–49 years) treated with GH for 3 weeks (1st week 0.01 mg/day, 2nd 0.02 mg/day, 3rd 0.03 mg/day) and su...

Background: The Visceral Adiposity Index (VAI) has been suggested as a new gender-specific marker of visceral adipose dysfunction, strongly associated with insulin sensitivity in patients with cardio-metabolic risk.Aim: To test VAI in active acromegaly for the assessment of disease-associated metabolic risk evaluating its association with hormonal data, adipocytokine levels, insulin sensitivity and secretion parameters in a cohort of 27 subjects (15 M, 1...

Background: Of the currently available treatment regimes for acromegaly, pegvisomant (PEG-V) has the highest efficacy. During PEG-V treatment, GH serum levels increase. The exact mechanism behind this is remains unclear. It could be explained by an ultra-short feedback loop via GH receptors in the anterior pituitary gland.Objective: To assess the level of GH receptor (GHR) mRNA expression in somatotroph adenomas and to evaluate whether GHR blockade by PE...

Background: In-patients inadequate food intake can worsen the prevalence and degree of malnutrition.Patients and methods: A “one day” questionnaire was used in medicine (M-Dpts) geriatric (G-Dpts) and surgery (S-Dpts) departments of a university hospital to: i) evaluate nutritional status with the Detky score, ii) quantify food intake, iii) understand the reasons of non-consumption of in-patients (n 286, 46 & 104 in M-, G- & S-Dpts, res...

Introduction: Episodes of poorly controlled diabetes (DM) are one of the most frequent medical complications during hospitalization in the elderly population.Goals: To analyze the mortality rate (M) in patients with DM who undergo some medical decompensation during admission to Vascular Surgery and Angiology (VS).Material and methods: Descriptive analysis of patients admitted to VS who suffered some type of medical decompensation t...

Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1) acts as both a peripheral incretin hormone and a central neuropeptide to regulate glucose and energy homeostasis. Within the brain, GLP1 is synthesised by a discrete collection of neurones in the brainstem, and presynaptic release of GLP1 results in binding to postsynaptic GLP1 receptors (GLP1R). The pattern of projections from these GLP1 synthesising neurones in the mouse brain has been described previously1,2. Here we use a novel tra...

GH is used primarily to increase adult height in short children with GHD/NSD with little knowledge about the impact of GH on health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Therefore this study was carried out to evaluate HRQoL in adult patients with childhood onset GHD/NSD at the end of GH therapy.HrQoL was measured by patient self-report using two generic questionnaires, SF36 and NHP. Patient data were compared to representative norm data. Clinical data as wel...

Colocalisation of hormones has been demonstrated for growth hormone (GH) and prolactin in the normal adult human pituitary, and for many other hormones in pituitary adenomas. We have investigated whether colocalisation of GH and other hormones occurs earlier, during onto-genesis. Pituitaries from therapeutically aborted male human fetuses of 15–20 weeks gestational age (with ethical approval) were fixed by immersion in 4% buffered formaldehyde and divided in halves, one o...