Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Regulation of HER2 through the transcription factor PEA3 is associated with tumour progression and resistance to endocrine treatment in human breast cancer. The mechanism of this resistance remains unclear. Activation of estrogen receptor co-activator proteins via the MAP-kinase pathway is thought to be central to tamoxifen insensitivity. We hypothesised that activation of HER2 by PEA3 may result in activation of co-activator proteins such as AIB1 (amplified-in-b...

Vitamin D is essential to the control of calcium homeostasis and is mainly provided by exposure to sunlight. In the UK circulating Vitamin D is subject to seasonal variation with peak values occurring in early Autumn and trough values in late Spring. Requests for Vitamin D assays are increasing but few laboratories quote seasonal reference ranges and many commercial suppliers quote reference ranges for populations living in warmer, sunnier climates. This study established seas...

Introduction: Faslodex (Fulvestrant) is a novel antiestrogen, which has been demonstrated to have clinical efficacy in metastatic breast cancer. It is thought to mediate it's effects by downregulating ER expression. ER-alpha and ER-beta function as transcription factors to modulate genes relevant to breast cancer progression. Both interact with nuclear regulatory proteins to enhance or inhibit transcription. We hypothesized that Faslodex may modulate the recruitment and intera...

ER-alpha and ER-beta function as transcription factors to modulate expression of target genes. Both interact with nuclear regulatory proteins to enhance or inhibit transcription. We hypothesized that these co-regulators are expressed in breast cancer tissue and may be differentially regulated by estrogen and tamoxifen.ER-alpha, ER-beta, the co-activator SRC-1, and the co-repressor SMRT were localized within breast tissue by immunohistochemistry, and the spatial co-expressi...

ER-alpha and ER-beta function as transcription factors to modulate expression of target genes. Both interact with nuclear regulatory proteins to enhance or inhibit transcription. We hypothesized that these co-regulators are expressed in breast cancer tissue and may be differentially regulated by estrogen and tamoxifen.ER-alpha, ER-beta, the co-activator SRC-1, and the co-repressor SMRT were localized within breast tissue by immunohistochemistry, and the ...

Aim: To investigate total homocysteine (Hcy), cysteine (Cys), glutathione (GSH), lipid and steroid sulfate levels in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).Methods: The blood levels of Hcy, Cys, GSH (determined by HPLC), total and HDL-cholesterol, insulin (IRMA),DHEA and DHEAS, cortisol, pregnenolone, 17-hydroxy-pregnenolone and pregnenolone-sulphate (all RIA) were examined in 44 women with PCOS (age 24+/-7yrs) and 12 healthy controls (34+/-5yrs) in...

Aim: To evaluate the effects of cyproteronacetate/ethinylestradiol (Diane 35) on weight, lipid and androgen levels in women with PCOS.Methods: 19 PCOS women, age 24.3 +/- 4.3 yrs, weight (W) 66.3 +/- 13.5 kg. Blood samples in the early follicular phase of menstrual cycle for cholesterol (C), HDL cholesterol (HDL-C), triglycerides (TG), testosterone (T), androstenedione (A), DHEAS and SHBG and again after 7 +/- 3.8 months of treatment with Diane 35.<p...

Introduction: Gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) quantitatively detects a large number of steroids at one time in a single serum sample. Most studies of subclinical hypercortisolism in adrenal incidentalomas have focused on detection of a few steroids like cortisol, DHEA/S, androstenedione, testosterone. We used GC-MS/MS to quantify 91 steroids in patients with adrenal incidentalomas to search for the most reliable marker of subclinical hypercortisolism.</p...

Context: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is common among hospitalized patents. An inpatient diabetes management service (IDMS) has been implemented to provide better glycemic control. The impact on length of stay (LOS) and 30-day readmission rates is unknown.Objective: We retrospectively analyzed LOS and 30-day readmission rate of patients with known DM admitted to a 240-bed community hospital in suburban Maryland between January 2016 and May 2017.<p class="a...

Many organs are functionally sexually dimorphic, resulting in profound differences in the activity of several physiological systems, including the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The rodent HPA axis matures post-weaning, characterized by parallel increments in adrenal weight, adrenal cortical size and corticosterone secretion. Between postnatal days (PND) 30 to 45, these parameters increase to a greater extent in females compared to males. Over this same interval, h...