Endocrine Abstracts

The aim of the present study was to examine the role of steroid hormones in control of growth and obesity. We have measured plasma level of progesterone (P4), testosteron (T) and estradiol (E2) in 301 adolescent girls at different stages of their ovarian cycle, and compared they with standard morphometric indexes of their growth and obesity – body height, body mass, abdomen and hip circumstances and waist to hip ratio (WHR). The ovarian cycle-depende...

Girls with Turner syndrome (TS) are treated with recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) to improve their adult height but the gain is variable (0–20 cm). Current prediction models can account for only ~46% of the variability in the first year response to rhGH, thus genetic profiling has been suggested as a possible means of improving this prediction. The aim of this study was to explore mRNA expression profiles in an ex-vivo fibroblast model to characterise response to r...

Changes in maternal dietary intake during gestation can affect muscle development1 and may be linked to the catabolic actions of hormones, such as glucocorticoids, which inhibits the insulin like growth factor 1 (IGF1) pathway. This study examines the potential effects of glucocorticoids and skeletal muscle adaptations in seven-day-old offspring exposed to suboptimal gestational environments.Pregnant sows were randomly assigned to a commercial...

GHI is a genetic condition in which patients present with growth failure due to primary IGF1 deficiency caused by a defect in the GH-IGF1 axis. In the last 10 years in the Centre for Endocrinology of WHRI at Barts and the London, 24 causative mutations in genes of the GH–IGF1 axis have been determined in 58 patients (Table 1). STAT5B mutations were responsible in 2 cases, IGFALS in 4 but the majority of defects identified were in GHR. Most mutations identifi...

The majority of adult GH replaced patients reach target IGF1 levels using established injection devices. However, a small but significant cohort of these patients fail to achieve these intended goals. This can be manifested as either a failure to improve (biochemically or symptomatically) despite escalating GH doses, or large variations in IGF1 measurements despite steady GH dosing.The Easypod® device has a memory chip which allows record...