Endocrine Abstracts

Thyroid hormone is required for normal brain development from early fetal life onwards. Maternal transfer of thyroxine (T4) constitutes a major fraction of fetal serum T4 in the first half of pregnancy. Early in gestation thyroid hormone receptors with T3 bound to it have been found in different human tissues, while type II deiodinase activity is present in human cortex.In case of fetal and maternal hypothyroidism, severe mental retardation, combined wit...

Renin is a rate-limiting enzymatic component of the renin-angiotensin pathway controlling blood pressure in vertebrates. Using the zebrafish developmental model organism, we study how renin-secreting cells are established in a small region of the early embryo that gives rise to the developing pronephric kidney: the origin of these cells, the factors that induce the differentiation of this cell lineage, and the function of very early renin expression. This study aims to gain in...

Epidemiologic studies support a relationship of lower birth weight with later disease- particularly type 2 diabetes. These findings may reflect either the influence of environmental factors before birth to influence risk of later disease (in utero programming) or pleiotropic genetic effects. In high risk populations, notably the Pima Indians of Southern Arizona, both low and high birth weight are associated with later risk of type 2 diabetes. In addition, long term foll...

Endocrine fetal therapies is currently performed in congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to 21-hydroxylase and 11 beta-hydroxylase deficiencies (CAH), hypothyroidism accompanied by large goiter and in thyrotoxicosis due to maternal autoantibodies. In CAH dexamethasone is administered to the mother 5–6 weeks p.c. to suppress the fetal hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis. If the diagnosis is confirmed by chorionic villus or amniocentesis therapy is continued, while it is disco...