Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology

ea0010s3 | Society for Endocrinology Medal Lecture | SFE2005

The evolution of primary aldosteronism

Connell J

Aldosterone is a key cardiovascular hormone in the development of hypertension and in the evolution of heart failure. Recent studies have suggested that Primary Aldosteronism may be present around 10% of patients with high blood pressure, although the precise definition of the syndrome remains uncertain. Nevertheless, it is clear that dysregulation of aldosterone production is a common clinical phenotype in cardiovascular disease. The majority of patients with aldosterone exce...

ea0010s16 | The placenta as an endocrine organ | SFE2005

Feto-placental 11ß-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 and glucocorticoid programming

Seckl J

Epidemiological evidence suggests that an adverse fetal environment permanently programmes physiology leading to increased risks of cardiovascular, metabolic, neuroendocrine and psychiatric disorders in adulthood. Prenatal glucocorticoid excess might link fetal maturation and adult pathophysiology. In a variety of animal models, prenatal stress or exposure to synthetic glucocorticoid which cross the placenta reduces birth weight and causes permanent hypertension, hyperglycaemi...

ea0010s22 | Evolving aspects in the HPA axis | SFE2005

Update on Cushing’s of the omentum

Tomlinson J

The phenotypic similarities between patients with Cushing’s syndrome and obesity have highlighted the potential pathogenic role of glucocorticoids in obesity / metabolic syndrome. However circulating cortisol levels in these conditions are normal. At a tissue specific level, the enzyme 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11β-HSD) controls cortisol availability to the glucocorticoid receptor (GR). In liver and adipose tissue, the type 1 isoform alone is expressed (...

ea0010s24 | Evolving aspects in the HPA axis | SFE2005

Carney complex, a personal perspective

Carney J

In 1981, study of the adrenal findings in 4 cases of Cushing syndrome caused by an unusual bilateral adrenal disorder led to characterization of a unique pathologic condition that was termed primary pigmented nodular adrenal disease (PPNAD). Review of the literature showed that the disorder had occurred in 19 patients, including 6 siblings from 2 families. In 1 family, the disorder occurred in 2 siblings; a third sibling, one without Cushing syndrome, died of cardiac myxoma. T...

ea0010s30 | Big issues in pituitary research | SFE2005

Steroidogenic factor-1 (SF-1) and DAX-1

Achermann J

The past decade has seen significant advances in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of pituitary development and function. However, relatively few gonadotrope specific factors have been identified to date. Through characterization of patients with endocrine disorders as well as transgenic mice, it has emerged that the nuclear receptor transcription factors SF-1 and DAX-1 play an important role in the regulation of gonadotrope activity. SF-1 (NR5A1) activates multipl...

ea0009s2 | Clinical Endocrinology Trust Visiting Professor Lecture | BES2005

Growth hormone - not only for growth, but for life?

Christiansen J

Growth hormone (GH) is secreted throughout life - albeit in diminishing quantities with age. Its many different physiological actions have been known since the classical work of Maurice Raben in the late fifties. However, due to lack of the hormone, replacement therapy was for many years restricted to the pediatric treatment of growth disorder, and its place in medicine became tightly connected with growth, and growth alone. Since the mid eighties natural sequence GH have been...

ea0009s3 | Clinical Endocrinology Trust Lecture | BES2005

Thyroid Disease - causes and effects

Franklyn J

Thyroid disease - hyper- and hypothyroidism, together with goitre and thyroid cancer - is extremely common. The familial clustering of autoimmune diseases such as Graves' hyperthyroidism illustrates the genetic contribution to susceptibility; we have described advances in understanding of the role of the CTLA4, HLA and other immune response genes in this susceptibility. We have shown that hyperthyroidism results in increased mortality, especially from vascular disease. Develop...

ea0009s14 | Symposium 3: Thyroid disease in pregnancy and childhood | BES2005

Neuropsychological consequences of thyroid hormone deficiency

Rovet J

Thyroid hormone (TH) is essential for the developing nervous system. Early in pregnancy, the maternal thyroid is the fetal brain's sole source of hormone while later, the developing fetal thyroid assumes an increasingly greater role to be fully independent by term. Because brain structures vary as to timing of need for TH, different types of brain impairment and, correspondingly, different neurobehavioral deficits reflect the exact period of TH was insufficient. Several human ...

ea0009s17 | Symposium 4: Intracellular transport for steroids | BES2005

The steroid hormone response element binding proteins

Adams J

For the last two decades this laboratory has been investigating the states of vitamin D and gonadal steroid hormone resistance in New World primate (platyrrhine) species. Hormone resistance results from the constitutive over-expression of proteins in the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) A and C families. These proteins, originally considered to bind and 'stabilize' single strand pre-mRNAs destined for translation, also bind DNA, regulating both the transcription...