Endocrine Abstracts

Kyphosis is a common spinal disorder affecting up to 8.3% of the population, and associated with significant morbidity. Familial and twin studies have implicated a genetic involvement. However, the causative genes have not been identified. Studies investigating the underlying molecular mechanisms are hampered by genetic heterogeneity, small families and variable modes of inheritance displayed by different kindreds. To overcome these limitations, we investigated 12 week old pro...

Advances in the understanding of hypophosphatemic disorders have identified a novel group of molecules (FGF23, PHEX, MEPE, DMP1) that have been implicated in osteoblast mineralisation directly.The specific binding of PHEX to MEPE regulates the release of ASARM peptides which have an inhibitory role. Current concepts are speculative and the functional role of MEPE in chondrocyte mineralisation remains largely undefined.Proximal tibiae from 3-week old wild...

Increased hypothalamic–pituitary–thyroid (HPT) axis activity results in high bone turnover. T3 stimulates osteoblast and osteoclast activities, whereas TSH is proposed to inhibit bone turnover directly. Resolving the relative importance of T3 and TSH is complicated by their physiological inverse relationship. We studied 10 controls and 4 patients with resistance to thyroid hormone (RTH), in which mutation of thyroid hormone receptor beta (THR...

Introduction: Adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a regulator of cellular and systemic energy homeostasis. Many of the changes seen in glucocorticoid excess correspond to the metabolic steps regulated by AMPK. In the hypothalamus and adipose tissues, glucocorticoids and cannabiniods share the same tissue specific effects on AMPK activity. Cannabinoids have central orexigenic and peripheral metabolic effects via the cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1). The ...

Exposure to maternal obesity or overfeeding during early development has lasting effects upon the young adult rat. Maternal cafeteria (CD) feeding during lactation programmes behaviour in the adult offspring, reducing anxiety in males and altering the behavioural satiety sequence in females. The aim of the present study was to examine the impact of early exposure to maternal over-nutrition upon bioactive amines in the brain. Lactating Wistar rats were fed either a control chow...

Dietary fat has been correlated with obesity since it induces the proliferation and differentiation of pre-adipocytes. Now it has become clear that the effect of fat on human health depends on the composition and the nature of fatty acids. Arachidonic acid (AA) is a major omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) with a controversial role in adipocyte differentiation. We investigated the effect on pre-adipocyte differentiation after a brief exposure to AA.<p class="abstext...

The physiological post-prandial release of the gut hormones PYY and GLP-1 is implicated in triggering CNS mechanisms underlying satiety. However, the combined effects of PYY and GLP-1 on brain circuits underlying satiety in humans remain unknown.Objective: To determine changes in CNS neuronal activity following single and combined infusions of PYY and GLP-1, using blood oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD fMRI) in human vol...

Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by a lack of paternal gene expression from 15q11–q13 and is characterised by failure to thrive in infancy, followed by hyperphagia due to abnormal satiety responses and increased motivation by food. We investigated growth and metabolism a mouse model in which the imprinting centre (IC) of the homologous PWS interval has been deleted (PWS-IC mice). Growth retardation only emerged post-natally, with ad...