Endocrine Abstracts

Intranasal presentations of pituitary tumours are rare. Management can be difficult and delayed due to their location and extension. Macroprolactinomas are uncommon and can often pursue an aggressive clinical course, including invasion into the nasopharynx.We describe three cases of prolactinomas that initially presented to the ENT Department as nasal polyps. Table 1 highlights their clinical features and response to treatment. Recurrence of nasal polyps...

A 46-year-old male presented in 1981 with a 2 year history of profuse watery diarrhoea, three stone weight loss and fatigue. On examination he appeared gaunt with diffuse muscle weakness. Investigations revealed hypokalaemia (2.5 mmol/l; NR 3.5–4.5), achlorhydria and a raised vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) (1500ng/L; NR 0–100). Abdominal CT showed a 5 cm pancreatic mass but with no focal liver pathology. A distal pancreatectomy was performed. Histology confi...

Thyroid hormones play an important roles during pregnancy and lactation. During pregnancy the foetus depends entirely on the dam for the supply of nutrients and after parturition for the formation of colostrum. To meet out these needs the dam attempts to reset up its endocrine function including thyroid gland. There is also a change in body metabolic rate and some of the related biochemical components which are mainly controlled by thyroid hormones. Therefore an experiment was...

Various psychiatric conditions have been associated with stress and alterations in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activity. Yet while stress is a general phenomenon, illness is only seen in a proportion of individuals, suggesting genetic modifiers of ability to cope with stress. 11-beta hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (HSD1) regenerates corticosterone from inert 11-dehydrocorticosterone, amplifying the levels of glucocorticoids and is expressed in the brain. To deter...

The capacity of the adrenal to produce cortisol is controlled in part by the transcription of 21 hydroxylase(CYP21) and production of androgens by 17 hydroxylase/17-20 lyase(CYP17) in response to secretogoues including ACTH, angiotensin-II(A-II) and forskolin. Both mRNA and protein expression of CYP21 was upregulated in the presence of forskolin and A-II alone and in combination in vitro H-295 adrenocortical cells, as detected by northern and western blotting. Whereas, ...

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 ...

Introduction: Elongated transverse aortic arch (ETA) has recently been described as the commonest abnormality (≅50%) in Turner syndrome (TS), exceeding the prevalence of bicuspid aortic valve (BAV; 10–30%) and aortic coarctation (CoA; 7–18%). Nevertheless only few studies focused on ETA. ETA was associated with BAV, CoA, 45,X and aortic dilatation.Aim: To evaluate the prevalence and associations of ETA in adult TS, unselected for cardiova...

Insulin-stimulated lactate production by granulosa cells (GC) appears to be compromised in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and this may have an adverse effect on the provision of 3-C units essential for oocyte development. The insulin-sensitiser, metformin, has been used successfully as an adjunct to gonadotrophin therapy in PCOS. Our objective was to establish whether metformin increased AMP kinase (AMPK) activity and lactate production in human GC.GC...

Overt hypercortisolism causes reduction in bone mass and density. The effects of subclinical Cushing’s syndrome (SCS) on bone markers and structure are still debated. We therefore studied 56 patients with adrenal incidentaloma: group A=35 (20 F 15 M, age 43–79, mean 64.6±1.5; BMI 29.9±0.9 kg/m2) without evidence of hypercortisolism, and group B=21 (10 F 11 M, age 51–76, mean 63.4±1.9, BMI 28.0±1.2 kg/m2) with SCS (i.e. w...