Endocrine Abstracts

The human adrenal gland develops from around 4 weeks post conception and undergoes rapid growth and differentiation in early fetal life. At birth, the adrenal gland consists of a mature adult type cortex capable of mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid production, as well as a fetal zone that involutes in the first few months. Disruption of the HPA axis development can cause adrenal hypoplasia. This is classically broken down into secondary causes (ACTH insufficiency); ACTH-res...

Addison’s disease is a good therapeutic target for regenerative medicine, as adrenal cell mass and steroidogenesis have clear intrinsic plasticity, as determined by circulating ACTH concentrations. With the advent of the biological agents as disease-modifying therapy for inflammatory arthritis and their experimental use in several other autoimmune conditions including type 1 diabetes, we undertook a pilot study of immunomodulatory therapy in patients with autoimmune Addis...