Endocrine Abstracts

The circadian variation of hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activity is well recognised, with levels of glucocorticoid rising in anticipation of the activity of the coming day (in humans) or night (in rodents). Less well recognised however, is that in common with many other hormones, both ACTH and corticosteroids are released in a pulsatile pattern – with the largest pulses occurring in the morning in man – explaining the large range of ‘normal’ morning ...

Stafford Lightman is Professor of Medicine at the University of Bristol and is Director of the Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrative Neuroscience and Endocrinology. He started his scientific career working on catecholamines and opioid peptides with Leslie Iversen at the University of Cambridge and provided some of the first data linking opioid peptides with the regulation of neurohypophysial function. At this time he also performed some of the first studies demonstrating...